Imagine being put to death for the crime of your child's unhappiness.
This is the tale of Icasia Bloom: how she is caught up in a story not initially her own, and how it changes her world.
In a Globe controlled by a trusted yet elusive leader who has granted immortality to those who live by The Book, misfit Icasia Bloom is doomed to die young for the crime of her child's unhappiness.
Like all 'tatters' she gets food by bartering, and when she brings customers to the new local bakery, she meets another borderline outcast, Selma Beyett, whose plight touches her.
Selma's husband Jerome must die in six months if his quest for perpetual happiness is not successful.
What starts as a desperate attempt to save Jerome takes the two women on a profoundly enlightening search for happiness. Icasia questions the Globe's judgement on its people and on the nature of happiness itself.
Heart-warming, yet strangely unsettling, How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness, questions everything we take for granted, and takes a long, hard look into our souls.
We blur the line between experimental and commercial. Publisher: @IamJessicaBell. Publishing Director: @AmieMcCracken #VLPgab tweets: @BraveIrene77.
Find out why The Wishing Shelf calls Jessica Bell's How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness "[a] gem of a novel." https://t.co/o1qUAoorJP #fiction #fictionbook #speculativefiction #novel #readvoraciously at #VineLeavesPress: https://t.co/ewGO0WyeqG https://t.co/8eyx49rjEq
"Without doubt, one of the best sci-fi novels I've read this year." Readers' Favorite
"Exploratory, frightening scenarios ... followed by a curveball epilogue." Foreword Reviews
"A gem of a novel." The Wishing Shelf
"A touching, deceptively deep novel for anyone who ever loved." Bookmuse
"A refreshing dystopia that captivates and charms." Stephen Oram, author of Eating Robots
"Icasia is one of those beautifully crafted characters that we can see the best of ourselves in." Monkey Review
"I have not been so comforted by a novel for a long time." K. Parsey, writer
"A quick, delicious and important read... that is, if you are constantly wondering what this life here is for." Elaina Battista-Parsons, author of Italian Bones in the Snow
"Wow. A book I will be thinking about for a while to come." Perry Iles, editor
"A metaphor for our times, lives and society, and shows what we should strive to achieve." Peter Snell, bookseller
"This novel is indeed a rare bird." Jean Gill, author of the Natural Forces series
"Totally absorbing race against time." Steve Zettler, author of Careless Love