The Reconstruction
The Reconstruction, Casper’s debut novel, follows Margaret, a sculptor hired by a museum to build a life-sized model of “Lucy,” mankind’s ancestral link to the primate world. In doing so, Margaret is forced to explore fundamental questions about evolution, the human condition, and her own troubled and perplexing life.
Praise for The Reconstruction
“A resonant first novel, rich with literary parallels and allusions…supremely satisfying”
“An important new talent. (Casper’s) voice is a welcome paradox: it is fresh and original, yet confident and mature.”
“Her observations of her heroine’s willful decent into primitive eccentricity are deft, her evocation of creative and academic obsession a delight, and her eventual award of hard-won happiness believable rather than pat. All in all, this is a sparkler of a first novel.”
“The strands are elegantly woven in prose that combines strength and precision with great lightness of touch. There are occasional excesses, but the central evolutionary metaphor proves an excellent vehicle for a tale that is individually absorbing and which effectively carries much wider and more primeval resonances.”
“An involving, funny, thought-provoking and even inspiring story of one woman’s personal transformation. It is as flawlessly constructed as the mysterious creature created by the protagonist.”
