Soul Retrieval: A debut novel written and illustrated by Shanna McNair
High Frequency Press, June 2025
Poet Mary Dixon yearns for meaning and understanding in Soul Retrieval, a gritty, lyrical reimagining of Kahlil Gibran’s soul-searching masterpiece, The Prophet.
Soul Retrieval begins in present-day, with the chapter “The Coming of the Ship.” Mary is riding a train in France. She is a visitor, traveling alone. She doesn’t speak the language and can’t find her seat. A conductor offers her a spot to sit in between railcars. As the French landscape rolls by, she pulls out a copy of The Prophet. She hasn’t read it in decades.
Page after page, she grows more and more transfixed by its profundity and beauty. And she sees how her story interweaves with the greater story of humanity. She is flooded with hope and reaches an epiphany: she is only as lost as she chooses to be. She only has to find her story. Tears of awe stream her cheeks. She has found new purpose. Mary, she thinks, it’s time that you love your life. Love your life like a question is meant to be loved. Your soul knows the great questions of The Prophet.
Shanna McNair has worked extensively in the visual and performing arts, having shown artwork at various places in Maine; many cafes and spaces and most notably at UMaine at Farmington and The Grand Movie Theatre in Ellsworth. She has shown at SFMOMA and Mad Magda’s in San Francisco and Mash Tun in Portland, Oregon. McNair’s original art pieces in Soul Retrieval are be available for purchase separately as reproduced art prints.
McNair is offering free e-publications of Soul Retrieval to the first 25 people who visit this link: https://www.shannamcnair.com/free-epub-giveaway
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