Uprooted from his native Brooklyn, yearning for independence from his overbearing father and relief from his obsessive thoughts, young concert pianist Joshua Brightman finds unlikely friends in his New Orleans neighbors, matriarch and gifted healer Annie Faris and her granddaughter, precocious twelve-year-old bookworm Sam. While Sam grieves over the recent loss of her father, Annie struggles to heal Sam’s terminally ill mother. In their search for health and peace, Joshua, Annie, and Sam learn what barriers exist between death and life, between disease and healing, and the price they must pay to overcome them. Their stories play out against the backdrop of an Eden lost, a wounded, post-oil-spill Louisiana, and the ongoing struggle for survival of her people, wildlife, and those mysterious, mystical marshes.
About the Author
Wendy Isaac Bergin, a Louisiana native, is Associate Professor of Music at Prairie View A&M University and principal flutist of Houston’s Opera in the Heights. A graduate of McNeese State University and the University of Houston, she has also been an Affiliate Artist at the University of Houston and served on the faculties of the University of Houston-Downtown, Blinn College and Lee College. She lived happily in New York City for eight years and three years in Stockholm, where she made solo and chamber music recordings for the Swedish National Radio. As a recorder player, she has performed with Houston Grand Opera, the Victoria Bach Festival, and Ars Lyrica Houston. She is the author of the highly praised novel The Piper’s Story: A Tale of War, Music and the Supernatural, Clay Bridges Press (2013).
