We, The Wanted
By: Matthew Schultz & Jordan LePore - Cosmic Egg Books, $13.95
Description: When famine emigrant Patrick Gallagher, secures passage aboard a transatlantic coffin ship from County Cork, Ireland, to the Grosse Île Quarantine Station, Canada, he finds himself prey to a very different sort of hunger.
Meanwhile, Angèle Paris D’Arcantel, a Vodou priestess, flees slavery and impending Civil War in New Orleans. She rides the Underground Railroad north along the Mississippi River to an abandoned lighthouse forsaken in the remote Adirondack wilderness at the brink of a vast, cursed forest and the harrowing bluffs of Lake Champlain.
Verdict: We, The Wanted is a sparingly illustrated novel charting the unverified and unverifiable mythologies of seemingly disparate folklores: Irish, Haitian, and Native American, that converge beneath the beacon of the Split Rock Lighthouse as a way of exploring the contemporary phenomena of disenchantment.
Shining a light upon the mysterious and tragic history of the American Northeast and across the tortured generations who weathered its storm, We, The Wanted is a gothic tale of grim isolation, the consequences of (dis)belief, and the monsters that continue to lurk beyond the pale of civilization hoping to lure us into their darkness.
Set in 1847, this quite breathtakingly vivid story combined with some rather fantastic illustrations brings forth the story of Patrick Gallagher, a stocky Irishman who sets sail aboard a ship bound for America.
As we now know, his journey does not go according to plan for instead of trying to make his way to New York City to secure work with a distant relative of his, he soon finds himself in a forest full of mythical creatures (as you do!)
Hitching a ride with another group of travelers who have had their own brand of unforsaken encounters with such creatures, and worse, up until that point, the newcomers band together for safety in numbers.
In a story that plays out like a reading of historical accuracy layered with dense mythology and sprinkled with gloriously created fables just for the prose, We, The Wanted tells the fascinating tale of a group of outsiders risking their very lives, in the hope of securing freedom for all.
About the Author: Matthew Schultz is the Director of the Writing Center at Vassar College where he teaches courses on literature and writing.
He earned his B.A. and M.A. in English Literature at John Carroll University and his Ph.D. in Literature from Saint Louis University. His previous novel, On Coventry is available from Harvard Square Editions.
Matthew lives, teaches, and writes in the Hudson Valley, New York, with his wife, son, and Great Dane.
Jordan LePore received his MFA in Visual Arts degree from Lesley University in June of 2017. He currently resides in New York City, USA.
Official Book Purchase Link
www.JohnHuntPublishing.com