On the run after Rosa murders several villagers more or less for the fun of it, the pair abandon Will. But Jacob and Rosa are more than human, and Jacob’s life work is inhuman: He travels the world, killing the last members of endangered species. Powerful and glamorous, Jacob shows Will the paternal love and warmth lacking at home. Walking on the English moors, 13-year-old Will meets Jacob Steep and Rosa McGee. But after he is attacked by a polar bear, he falls into a coma and relives the key portion of his unhappy childhood. In the opening section of Sacrament, Will Rabjohns is an internationally known photographer, controversial for his books filled with pictures of dying animals. The question is, how do we stop from despairing?”īarker addresses these issues with a fearlessness admirable in an established genre writer. Even without AIDS, this is a world of loss. But straight or gay, life is about losing people.

“I’ve lost many friends to AIDS – no lovers, thank God. “We’ve lost great souls to AIDS and great species to extinction,” he says. It seems to me that Will’s homosexuality fits neatly here.”Īnd, of course, Barker says, AIDS and extinction are parallel issues. He has to solve his problems in his own lifetime. “As a gay man, he won’t be leaving behind any children to tidy up his loose ends. “It’s interesting to make the hero of such a story a genetic cul de sac,” Barker says. As the numbers and diversity of wild creatures dwindles at an alarming rate, the number of human beings skyrockets. The real subjects of Sacrament, Barker says, are extinction and procreation, which make it the appropriate vehicle for the introduction of a gay hero. We have to be voices for the things that can’t cry out. “But as a gay man, I can stand up and yell. “Our culture still harbors deep, deep veins of homophobia,” he adds. “Even though I write fantastic literature, I try to connect with the real world, to connect with real crises by the use of allegory,” Barker says. It was time, he felt, to speak up in the best way he knew how – through his work. He is particularly disappointed in the environmental record of President Clinton.

He admits his concern over the degradation of the natural world has blunted his optimism about the future.

The environmental themes could be more troublesome, but Barker is able to make his points without preachiness. Barker hopes the United States, where the book was published July 7, won’t be far behind. At the same time, the novel is a best seller in Britain and Canada. The gay press, which might have rejected the book as too mainstream, has delivered what Barker calls “extraordinary” reviews. So far, Sacrament has been widely accepted.

Imagica barker