Author Keith Harvey releases his fifth novel, ‘Cave Gossip’

Inspired by Carl Jung’s and James Hillman’s writings, “Cave Gossip” (published by iUniverse) is author Keith Harvey’s fourth novel. Harvey set out to write a book exploring images, memes, myth and religion. “Cave Gossip” consists of five distinct parts, all revealing the psyche of the book’s protagonist, Karl Wisent. First, a 12-year-old Karl meets the notorious German writer Georg Lowe, who introduces Karl to myth, magic and treachery. Later on, Karl is 20 years older and enters into an affair with a self-absorbed woman named Helene, who lives with Gaspard, an actor. Then, the book jumps forward a year to 1993, where Karl returns to Avignon, France, where he met Georg Lowe. There he plays host to seven guests from around the world whose worldviews and opinions shatter Karl’s vision of myth and fantasy. Next, Karl is in Nice, France, where he reunites with Helene. She is pregnant with his child, but on the verge of marrying Gaspard. Finally, the readers see 49-year-old Karl preparing to meet his 15-year-old daughter for the first time. The novel was inspired by an award-winning poem of the same title by Harvey. The poem revolves around the newly exiled Adam and Eve trying to cope with what has happened to them by making up stories about their plight. “The novel ‘Cave Gossip’ postulates that not only do modern man and woman unconsciously continue the process of myth-making to explain their lives in the same way as my fictional Adam and Eve,” Harvey says, “but by following this ritual of myth-making they sometimes repeat the stories and tales to their detriment. Only by becoming conscious of their myth can they overcome them.”