BERNINI’S ELEPHANT
Published by GUERNICA EDITIONS
Albert Einstein noted that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. Kat, a middle-aged marketing executive from Vancouver, ponders the truth behind Einstein’s law as she tours the antiquities of Italy. In Pompeii, volcanic ash remains in the shape of a woman bear witness to her futile escape of the rage of Mount Vesuvius. Kat, a widow with blood on her hands, contemplates the ancient woman’s destiny and her own. To escape the consequences of past choices, Kat abandons her travel companion and sometime accomplice. She links up instead with Franco, a street artist painting in the Roman twilight near Bernini’s sculpture of an elephant. Becoming Franco’s patron is the easy part. Kat learns that Einstein’s theory holds in everyday life. She cannot escape past decisions. Murder undetected remains murder after all.
Fiction | LITERARY THRILLER
PUB. DATE: May 1st, 2023
SIZE: 9 x 6 PAGES: 254
PRICE: $25.00 CAD / $ 21.95 US
ISBN: 978-1-77183-784-2
AVAILABLE FROM
Guernica Editions, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, Booktopia.
2024 EVENTS
February 12, 2024
Writers Radio Podcast - LISTEN NOW!
Murder. Art. Love: The Transformation of Kat in Bernini's Elephant, an interview with author Jane Callen.
February 23, 2024 7pm
Café Calabria
1745 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, Canada
Face-to-face book club meet with the author.
April 22, 2024
Il Giardino Segreto
Area Verde Camollia 85, Siena, Italy
Jane will explore her experience as an author in contemporary Canada.
May 16, 2024
SpaZio Pontano Centro Culturale
Via Giovanni Potano 35, Milan, Italy
A bilingual reading with the help of friends.
June 25, 6:30 pm
Vancouver Public Library
350 West Georgia, Vancouver, Canada
Writers Showcase, Jane joins fellow authors to read and answer audience questions.
PAST EVENTS
June 27, 2023
Writers Showcase
Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, Canada
June 8, 2023
Books and Biscotti
Italian Cultural Centre, Vancouver, Canada
May 28, 2023
Guernica Editions Book Launch, Toronto, Canada
May 4, 2023 6pm
“Il Maggio dei Libri 2023”, San Gimignano, Italy
INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
“Bernini’s Elephant”, a noir set in beautiful Italy: interview with the author Jane Callen
“Bernini’s Elephant”, un noir ambientato nella bella Italia: intervista all'autrice Jane Callen | Corriere Canadese
The Artisanal Writer, Lucy Black’s interview with author Jane Callen
”Since 2011 I had travelled each September to Italy, a country I have come to love. An unframed painting recently purchased from a street artist in Rome was leaning on a shelf in my bookcase. I walked over to it and asked Bernini’s elephant, do you want to be Kat’s next adventure? The story took off from there."
- Jane Callen
Goodreads Review by Lucy Black
“Bernini’s Elephant by Jane Callen is an impressive debut novel. Kat is a recently-widowed Canadian, who travels to Italy, where she discovers Franco, a young Italian painter. Kat decides to become his patron and brings Franco to Vancouver. [read full review]
Goodreads Review by Caitlin Hicks
“Against a backdrop of Italian buildings and ruins, lagoons, canals, islands and descriptions of the best Italy has to offer, a traditional-yet-modern, a distant-yet-mysterious story emerges. Kat, a widow, (whose husband died after a meal of mushrooms he foraged himself) visits the ruins… [read full review]