Fruit of the Dead

An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, exploring who holds the power in a modern underworld.

Camp counsellor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. 

The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island off the coast of Maine. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. When her daughter seemingly disappears, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears.

Alternating between the two women’s perspectives, Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a lush and haunting story that explores love, attraction, control, obliteration and America’s own late capitalist mythos.

About the Author

Rachel Lyon is the author of Fruit of the Dead and Self-Portrait with Boy , a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Her short stories have appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, and other publications. A teacher of creative writing at various institutions, most recently Bennington College, Rachel lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and two young children.