Livid
Book Feature - Livid by Cai Emmons
HBL Note: Cai Emmons, who I first featured when she published Sinking Islands, has not one but two books coming out in September! Cai was diagnosed with bulbar onset ALS in 2021, a disease that causes the degradation of the body and voice (she is now mute)—but not the mind. Cai wrote about this experience in the Los Angeles Times and was profiled by the Washington Post. Both of the books that are publishing this month, which include Unleashed (which I featured earlier this month) and LIVID (out now) were written while she was battling the disease. Both books feature themes of rage, passion, regret and grief.
Though published by two separate publishers, both books have bold, fiery red and yellow covers. I would love to pick the minds of the two book cover designers to see how they landed on the same color palette. LIVID is “about a woman suffering from a terrible loss, who is placed on a jury with her estranged ex-husband. She experiences a surprising kinship with the female defendant and the relationship leads to unexpected consequences.”
Cai is also the author of His Mother’s Son, The Stylist, and Weather Woman. Scroll down to read about her latest release, LIVID:
Book Feature - Livid by Cai Emmons
Book Feature - Livid by Cai Emmons
From the publisher:
Sybil White Brown returns from Boston to the small West Coast city where she once lived, hoping to heal after a terrible loss. Summoned to jury duty, she is dismayed to be assigned to the jury of a murder trial alongside her ex-husband with whom she had a rancorous divorce. As the trial progresses, she and her ex tiptoe around each other but eventually become disastrously entangled. Meanwhile, Sybil obsesses about the female defendant, whom she believes is innocent. The situation explodes during jury deliberations when Sybil comes face-to-face with her own unexpressed rage.
