The Ballad of St. Katherine

<p>Katherine is a strange Bronx girl who hears the voices of the constellations. Abetted by a building super and a disgraced NASA administrator she becomes a revered faith healer only to be betrayed by her inner voice when it tells her to have a child.</p> <p>Set in eras ranging from the sixties to the near future Simon's stories blend sexual tension religious feeling intellect and madness into a compelling brew. In a senior-living facility a man plots murder with a woman he believes to be a famous author. A philosophy professor and her boyfriend contemplate suicide. Their every move followed by cameras the contestants in a reality show need to complete a main task but no one knows what it is. After years on the run from the F.B.I. a bank robber enters a monastery while his lover/accomplice stews in boredom.</p> <p>In the words of one of Simon's characters: The sacred and the profane lie close together separated by the thinnest membrane almost nothing. Breeching this boundary The Ballad of St. Katherine presents a fascinating set of personalities some slain by their obsessions others able to come to terms with their lives or their deaths.</p>