Powerful and Poignant” Novel from Kunati Pits Breast Cancer Victim Against Murderer

USA (SANEPR.com) May 6, 2008 -- Belly of the Whale, the new novel from Kunati Books author Linda Merlino, is the excruciating story of a woman who longs for release from the breast cancer that is destroying her, only to realize that life is very much worth living when she is taken hostage by an angry young man planning murder. “It’s a riveting story, both powerful and poignant in its telling,” says New York Times bestselling author Howard Roughan. “Merlino’s immense talent shines on every page.”

A trip to the local convenience store in a blizzard turns deadly when chemotherapy-sick Hudson Catalina, along with the store’s elderly owner and her mentally handicapped helper, are handcuffed together and held at gunpoint. As the hours go by, their captor becomes increasingly drunk and violent. When the ordeal is finally over, a police officer leads Hudson’s husband to her body, lying on a gurney alongside four others, covered in a white sheet. What good could possibly come from such senseless, random violence?

“We always look for fiction that bends genres and takes readers to unexpected places,” said Kunati publisher Derek Armstrong. “Belly of the Whale does that by giving us a wonderfully complex character at the limit of her tolerance for life’s burdens, then forcing her to contend with something even more terrible. It’s perceptive character study and tense, suspenseful thriller at the same time.”

Belly of the Whale will release to extensive publicity in April of 2008 from Kunati Books, called a “new publisher to watch” by Booklist.

Kuanti seeks out provocative and controversial fiction, as well as non-fiction that inspires and enlightens. The spring 2008 season includes two new medical thrillers, a scathingly funny satire of the post-Cold War US military, a literary crime novel that boasts the most unique protagonist to come along in years, a novel that explores the personality of a woman who murdered her toddler son, and a literary adventure about finding the tomb of Jesus.
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