Monday, January 06, 2014

Anselm by Florence Byham Weinberg

Florence is a friend and a fellow author at Twilight Times books. I've not read the book yet, but I have bought it because it sounds like fun. Thought you guys might be interested. 





Summary: Fearing imminent death from a heart defect, Anselm Farnese, a 53-year-old, overweight Benedictine monk, discovers a 12th-century ritual in a dusty archive. If he locates a victim who—even momentarily—wishes to be someone else, he can usurp that person’s body. But he must commit himself to the Powers of Evil. Twenty-seven-year-old, cocky Professor Eric Behrens seduces an undergraduate student. Summarily fired, he curses the world and wishes to be someone else. He trips, falls, and wakes up in Anselm’s ailing body. Each man retains his own consciousness. One gleefully usurps Eric’s parents, lover and life; the other lives a nightmare as he desperately struggles to survive.

If, as Christians believe, the soul, mind, or consciousness survives the body, then, as the philosopher René Descartes tried to prove, it is separate and distinct from the body. This fantasy novel imagines the metaphysical, psychological and real-life consequences of transplanting the self in an alien body.




Author Bio: A native of Alamogordo, NM, Florence Byham Weinberg traveled extensively with her military family during World War II. Travels continued after marriage to scholar-critic Kurt Weinberg in Canada, France, Spain and Germany. After earning her PhD, she taught for twenty-two years at St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, and ten at Trinity University, San Antonio.
http://www.florenceweinberg.com/
 



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