BOISE, Idaho — It's a sweeping, near-future, dystopian epic of biblical proportions involving, war, politics, religious fanaticism, natural disasters and a mysterious set of wings that appear on the main character. Boise author Alan Heathcock's second book, his first novel, "40", comes out Tuesday August 2.
In the synopsis, the main character named Mazzy Goodwin is described as a "young soldier who wakes up in a bomb crater and inexplicably has wings emerged from her back. She flies out of the crater, very confused, to find her entire platoon killed in a bomb strike, and later finds America has devolved into a civil war between the U.S. Government and a mysterious cult-like, pseudo-religious faction."
"Vanity Fair" recently featured "40" as a "Freshest New Fiction" selection.
In an interview for this week's Viewpoint, Heathcock talks about the premise of the story. An excerpt is below.
Alan Heathcock: I had thought about a person with wings being brought down into this world and how people would react. And I thought that was kind of an interesting thing to think about. All the connotations that would come with it and what would be lauded on top of just having wings, let alone the type of person you are.
Doug Petcash: Will you divulge why the title is "40'?
Alan Heathcock: 40 is kind of a sacred number across a number of the world religions, and I think, specifically, there's a couple allusions from the Christian Bible, 40 days and 40 nights of rain, 40 days in the desert. There's lots of 40s in the Christian Bible and Psalm 40 is one of my favorite psalms. It speaks basically into waiting patiently for a song to come from your mouth and sing a new song into the world, and that kind of speaks to the way I think about myself as an artist. I kind of think of the book, the publishers always gets tricky. You know, is it science fiction, is it fantasy, is it literary fiction? I don't think in those ways. I kind of think of it as a secular Bible story that's set in America. It's just the way I've always thought of it. You know you think of Bible stories, they have politics and war and there's magical realism.
On Tuesday August 2 Heathcock is holding a book launch and signing event at 7 p.m. at TRICA, 1406 Eastman St. in Boise. The event is also a benefit for Radio Boise. That same day copies will also be available at Rediscovered Books, Barnes and Noble and any online bookseller.
The full interview with Heathcock will air this Sunday morning at 9 o'clock on Viewpoint on KTVB NewsChannel 7. He talks more about how he developed the themes he included in the book and his overall creative process.
Heathcock is also the author of the critically-acclaimed 2011 short story collection "Volt."
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