Three Days Till Rapture by Fisher Lavell Wins International Book Award
Fisher Lavell’s second novel in the Roaring River Woman series, Three Days Till Rapture, has won the prestigious Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing presented annually by the American Working Class Studies Association (WCSA). The WCSA book awards recognize and celebrate exemplary new work that provides insightful and engaging representations of working class life and culture, highlighting working class voices, experiences, and perspectives. In choosing Lavell’s novel, the judges said they “were very impressed with the strength and nuance of her working-class women characters in particular, and appreciated the ‘raw and affecting’ tone which they say delivered real impact.”
Three Days Till Rapture is a historical fiction novel set in the Swan River Valley during the 1950s. It follows the young married lives of Grace, a Christian woman, and Valentine Labeau, a hardworking man who is also a blooming alcoholic and womanizer. Cheerful and feisty, Grace’s faith and her commitment to the marriage are sorely tested throughout the story.
Lavell describes Three Days Till Rapture as a working class novel, addressing themes of poverty and addiction, brokenness and redemption. Although the characters are loosely based on members of her own extended family, the book has more than personal appeal. Many of those from the Silent Generation (born in the 1930s and 40s), as well as Baby Boomers, will recognize experiences, struggles, and triumphs from their own family sagas, while younger readers will be both entertained and informed by the narrative.
Lavell has received a National Public Reading grant, sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts and Writers Union of Canada, for a reading from Three Days Till Rapture. Her presentation, “Becoming a Writer at 60: Grace and Forgiveness in the Novels of Fisher Lavell,” will be featured at Coffee and a Chat, Swan River Senior Citizens Centre on Thursday, June 25, at 10 a.m. There will be a Q&A, and the author will be available afterwards for book signing. All ages are welcome.
Link to WCSA awards announcement: