Celia is a grotesque: a giantess who also suffers a syndrome that means her body ages at three times the normal rate. Born fully-fanged and hideous, her mother immediately drops her on the nearest doorstep. Let’s not feel sorry for Celia, though; she is in part responsible for the devastation of her home town, Provencia, although the earthquake was not her fault. She has also been saved from a pitiable life by the gift of a camera. With this she documents the everyday lives of the population of Provencia as they pick their way through the wreckage that she has to some extent caused.
Celia’s singular story is told as she writes a brochure to accompany her final retrospective photographic exhibition that will be shown at last in The Capital:

‘They think they’re getting a neat three thousand word summary, nothing too disruptive, melancholy or unsettling. They think they’re getting a whisper, but they’re getting a fist in the face.
What they’re getting is a hurricane.
What they’re getting is an epic.’

An Imitation of Life takes the reader into an outlandish world where the characters are extraordinary but somehow very appealing.

The Author: Laura Solomon is from New Zealand where she has published two novels with Tandem Press: Black Light and Nothing Lasting. She has also written two plays: The Dummy Bride and Sprout which were produced at the Wellington and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Short stories published in the UK include: Sprout and The Most Ordinary Man in the World (2004 and 2005 Bridport International Short Story competition anthology). Her short story collection, Alternative Medicine, was published in 2008 by Flame Books, UK).