Blood of the Virgin

Set in and around 1971 in Los Angeles, Blood of the Virgin follows an immigrant film editor named Seymour who is desperate to make his own movies. Without money or clout, he has no choice but to spend his days slumming it for the worst and most exploitative production company in town. When Seymour is given the chance to make a film of his own, his unbending principles and relentless drive violently clash with an industry that rewards everything but these traits. As Seymour’s blind ambition pushes the movie along, his home life grows increasingly fraught. Using the film’s production as a means to spiral out into time and space, Harkham creates an epic novel that explores the intersection of parenthood, 20th-century America, sex, the immigrant experience, and the era of grindhouse movies. Like a kaleidoscope, Blood of the Virgin shifts and evolves with each frame, allowing the reader to zoom out and see that at its core, this book is about the making of a man.

“A story about storytelling…Conjures up the grindhouse movie-making scene in 1970s Los Angeles and tracks an ambitious young man’s flailing attempts to build a family and a career as a film arteest in that debased world…A book with a lot of heart.” —Art Spiegelman, bestselling author of MAUS

Hardcover | $30.00
Published by Pantheon
May 02, 2023 | 296 Pages | 7-3/4 x 10 | ISBN 9780593316696