Shawanda Stockfelt

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Epigenesis or serendipity?

Virtue is a highly intelligent 'womanist' from Dominica who has emigrated to the UK for postgraduate studies. A whiz at statistics and an excellent scholar, Virtue is on her way to fulfilling her academic dreams but is derailed by a passionate relationship with 'the-Finnish-Swedish-love-of-her-life', Daavid. The two form an intense and sensuous bond, but their paths to happiness are thwarted by ominous forces... themselves. Their painful struggles play out against the backdrop of a serene Swedish countryside, where Virtue, an empowered and passionate feminist, tries to fight the odds as she becomes embroiled in the biggest battle of, and for, her life. ‘Epigenesis or serendipity? Shit just happens, doesn't it?' is a creative work of fiction projected as the autobiography of the main character, Virtue Lindström. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Virtue Lindström is the pseudonym used by the author Shawanda Stockfelt to represent the main character in the novel of the same name. The book is an autobiographical fiction in which the author creates a story rooted in her own background and experiences. REVIEWS/RECENSIONER Highly recommended! (Madeleine, USA, Nov. 24th) This is a searing, personal account of a woman facing life-threatening health challenges while raising two small children, pursuing the career she worked so hard for, and trying to maintain her loving marriage in a country where she doesn’t speak the language. The honesty and intimacy with which the story is told makes you feel like you are in deep conversation with one of your closest friends. Highly recommended. A riveting read! (Alma. F, USA, Nov 8th) I read Shawanda Stockfelt’s debut novel in one sitting, something I rarely can accomplish. I was sucked in from page one. Ambition, dreams, hard work, love, family. We all recognize and are driven by varying degrees of these aspects of life, navigating by giving focus to each element in turn, trying to find our bearings in life’s everchanging landscape. The road is seldom a straight one for any of us, but it usually leads forward, until suddenly, it doesn’t. The main character, Virtue Lindström, crashes headlong into the proverbial wall. The novel conveys, in detailed and heart wrenching terms, her attempts to find a way out of a prolonged, existential crisis in which her core sense of self falls literally under the knife. Searingly intense! 5 out of 5 stars! (W. Flesch, USA, Nov 4th) The personal is the political, the old saying goes, but this book shows how much the converse holds true as well: the political is the personal, and the personal goes very deep, even as the self is bothered (to allude to the title of a book of musings published, in the real world, a few months ago by the main character in this book). This is an amazing, searing work of autofiction. Autofiction because the writing is part of the point, part of who Virtue Lindström is. And who is she if not a writer like the author, Shawanda Stockfelt, who is, in Virtue the writer that she is? Every page is stylistically gripping, from the haunting poems that frame the book’s sections to the intensities of solitude (the personal) as the solitary self reflects on her relation to the others in her life: children, parents, cultures, countries, languages (the political). And it might be that style can save you, can make you think as intensely as you need to be saved: at least Virtue shows what that kind of thinking looks like. I’ve never read anything quite like this. It’s about what you lose and what stays with you. And this book will stay with you.