It had been over twenty years since beautiful young French actress, Isabelle Massot, was murdered in the nursery of her San Diego apartment. But the only witness to the crime--their four-month-old baby daughter--Jeanne-Marie, knew the perpetrator. Jeanne-Marie, thanks to a wealthy French grandfather, ended up a patient for over two decades at San Diego's Hilltop Mental Hospital, where she became known by the sobriquet 'Jemma,' had not spoken a word since the day she arrived. Jemma was never diagnosed with a psychological disorder that accounted for her aphasia, nor was there a somatic reason that she spent all of her waking hours in a wheelchair. But after a treatment of electroconvulsive therapy at age twenty-one Jemma--self-educated and fluent in French--began composing a narrative on the computer that would perhaps disclose the unknown identity of the perpetrator in her mother's death. The Hospital was thrown into a turmoil when an attempt is made on Jemma's life and a priest's attempted exorcism, but they only provoke new speculation about her cognitive abilities, particularly that she might be autistic, and someone possessed of 'savant syndrome,' a totally unique mentality of perfect recall. As the case of Jemma becomes publicly known her virtual anonymity is erased in the limelight of media interest, the ambitions of some of those responsible for her care, and dark characters from her past. One of them is her father, Charles Archer who disappeared into Mexico. But now Archer has returned to seek reunion with the daughter he knew only as a baby. But there are no certainties in Jemma's mysterious universe in which she is orbited by an ambitious administrator, a clever neurologist, a celebrated documentarian, a retired cop, and a Roman Catholic priest. Sebastian Gerard has woven a cast of characters with different and conflicting motivations, united only by the ways in which their fates may be ordained by the unfathomable mind of a mystifying savant.
SEBASTIAN GERARD Gerard's first full-length work of fiction, For Goodness Sake, A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong, written as Sebastian Gerard, was published in Hong Kong in 2008 and he has scripted the story for production as a feature motion picture. In 2014 it was published in French by GOPE in France under the title A la Poursuite de Suzie Wong. A book of his aphorisms, Lifelines, writing as Sebastian Gerard, was published in May 2004. Stumbling Blocks & Stepping Stones, a Novel of Growing Up Catholic (2015) The Babo Gospels: Essays and Parables on Faith and Reason (2018). The River Dragon's Daughters, a novel of Four Women of the Yangtze was published in 2019. Forsaken a novel that deals with a terrorist attack and religious hypocrisy in a small town in upstate New York was published in 2020. His most recent publication is The Moneylender, a Novel of the Inner Life of Shakespeare's Shylock (2024). Gerard also writes nonfiction books under the name James A. Clapp. His first full-length work of fiction, For Goodness Sake, A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong, written as Sebastian Gerard, was published in Hong Kong in 2008 and he has scripted the story for production as a feature motion picture. In 2014 it was published in French by GOPE in France under the title A la Poursuite de Suzie Wong. A book of his aphorisms, Lifelines, writing as Sebastian Gerard, was published in May 2004. Stumbling Blocks & Stepping Stones, a Novel of Growing Up Catholic (2015) The Babo Gospels: Essays and Parables on Faith and Reason (2018). The River Dragon's Daughters, a novel of Four Women of the Yangtze was published in 2019. Forsaken a novel that deals with a terrorist attack and religious hypocrisy in a small town in upstate New York was published in 2020. His most recent publication is The Moneylender, a Novel of the Inner Life of Shakespeare's Shylock (2024). Dr. Clapp has taught on the faculty of the University of California and was appointed by the French Ministry of Education as a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris VII in 1989 and 1999, where he lectured on both film and American urbanism. He also taught for the Syracuse University Division of International Programs in Hong Kong in 1997 and was a guest lecturer at TongJi University, Shanghai that year. He has also delivered lectures at Peking and Tsinghua Universities and the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. In 2008 he was made an 'Honorary Professor' of Beijing City University. Articles based on his lectures there have been published in Chinese. In the year 2000 he was the Fulbright Scholar at Lingnan University and the School of Creative Media at City University, in Hong Kong. From 1977 to 2003 he conducted annual summer travel-study courses in European, Asian, North African, and Middle Eastern cities. Dr. Clapp's work in media and journalism began in 1980 when as Ch
SEBASTIAN GERARD Gerard's first full-length work of fiction, For Goodness Sake, A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong, written as Sebastian Gerard, was published in Hong Kong in 2008 and he has scripted the story for production as a feature motion picture. In 2014 it was published in French by GOPE in France under the title A la Poursuite de Suzie Wong. A book of his aphorisms, Lifelines, writing as Sebastian Gerard, was published in May 2004. Stumbling Blocks & Stepping Stones, a Novel of Growing Up Catholic (2015) The Babo Gospels: Essays and Parables on Faith and Reason (2018). The River Dragon's Daughters, a novel of Four Women of the Yangtze was published in 2019. Forsaken a novel that deals with a terrorist attack and religious hypocrisy in a small town in upstate New York was published in 2020. His most recent publication is The Moneylender, a Novel of the Inner Life of Shakespeare's Shylock (2024). Gerard also writes nonfiction books under the name James A. Clapp. His first full-length work of fiction, For Goodness Sake, A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong, written as Sebastian Gerard, was published in Hong Kong in 2008 and he has scripted the story for production as a feature motion picture. In 2014 it was published in French by GOPE in France under the title A la Poursuite de Suzie Wong. A book of his aphorisms, Lifelines, writing as Sebastian Gerard, was published in May 2004. Stumbling Blocks & Stepping Stones, a Novel of Growing Up Catholic (2015) The Babo Gospels: Essays and Parables on Faith and Reason (2018). The River Dragon's Daughters, a novel of Four Women of the Yangtze was published in 2019. Forsaken a novel that deals with a terrorist attack and religious hypocrisy in a small town in upstate New York was published in 2020. His most recent publication is The Moneylender, a Novel of the Inner Life of Shakespeare's Shylock (2024). Dr. Clapp has taught on the faculty of the University of California and was appointed by the French Ministry of Education as a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris VII in 1989 and 1999, where he lectured on both film and American urbanism. He also taught for the Syracuse University Division of International Programs in Hong Kong in 1997 and was a guest lecturer at TongJi University, Shanghai that year. He has also delivered lectures at Peking and Tsinghua Universities and the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. In 2008 he was made an 'Honorary Professor' of Beijing City University. Articles based on his lectures there have been published in Chinese. In the year 2000 he was the Fulbright Scholar at Lingnan University and the School of Creative Media at City University, in Hong Kong. From 1977 to 2003 he conducted annual summer travel-study courses in European, Asian, North African, and Middle Eastern cities. Dr. Clapp's work in media and journalism began in 1980 when as Ch
Titel
SAVANT
Untertitel
The Mind of Jemma
Autor
EAN
9798317803971
Format
E-Book (epub)
Hersteller
Veröffentlichung
12.07.2025
Digitaler Kopierschutz
frei
Dateigrösse
1.84 MB
Anzahl Seiten
280
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