New Book: Open Heavens
After the international success for their short story collection, After the Sun, Jonas Eika now returns with a new, historical novel: Open Heavens.
At the beginning of the 13th century an unusual women’s movement calling themselves the Beguines emerged. For the first time in Catholic Europe, a large number of women chose neither marriage nor life in a convent. Instead, they formed small, autonomous communities on the outskirts of various cities in Western Europe.
Spanning one year, from Easter to Easter, the novel follows a small Beguine household in Liège, as it transforms from reformist to messianic, eventually joining forces with the city’s poor and marginalized. Meanwhile, the Beguine Ida starts having visions of the young Virgin Mary, an intricate bureaucracy of Angels, and a transfeminine Jesus. Slowly and reluctantly, Ida steps into her role as a prophet, while trying to surrender herself to the people she loves.
Open Heavens is a wondrous genre-breaking historical novel, exploring themes of divine calling, shame, desire, and what it means to build a new political community.
The novel is published by Basilisk today, October 24th, 2024.
