Come meet the author of West Facade, Lauren C. Johnson

About the Book

A cathedral statue discovers what it means to be human, then faces an impossible choice…

In Paris, at the dawn of the Bubonic Plague, the statues that guard the Notre Dame Cathedral are forbidden from experiencing human pleasures. But the statue of Sainte Geneviève’s quiet existence changes irrevocably when a grieving woman places a citrus fruit in her hands as an offering—an offering Geneviève can’t resist eating.

Eating awakens Geneviève to her desires, making Geneviève want to be more than an object on a cathedral wall. But when Geneviève gets what she wants, she must choose between remaining human and accepting mortality or returning to an eternity of being a statue at the cathedral once more.

About the Author

Lauren C. Johnson holds a B.S. in Journalism from Emerson College and an MFA in Creative Writing from American University. Her work has appeared in such publications as Orion and The Rumpus. She is the co-host of Babylon Salon, one of the Bay Area’s longest running literary and performance series, and the co-founder of Club Chicxulub, a journal and reading series featuring speculative fiction authors. Raised in Tampa, Florida, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband and her two rescue doves, Schooner and Eagle. This is her first book.