A Severed Wasp

Infobox Book |
name = A Severed Wasp
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Madeleine L'Engle
illustrator =
cover_artist = Muriel Nasser
country = United States
language = English
series = Katherine Forrester
genre = Young adult
publisher = Farrar, Straus & Giroux
release_date = 1982
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 388 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-374-26131-8
preceded_by = The Small Rain

"A Severed Wasp" (1982, ISBN 0-374-26131-8), is a novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It continues the story of a pianist, Katherine Forrester, that we first saw in "The Small Rain". Now a widow in her seventies, Katherine Forrester Vigneras returns to New York City in retirement from concert touring in Europe. There she encounters Felix Bodeway, an old friend from her Greenwich Village days, who is now the retired Episcopal Bishop of New York. He asks Katherine to give a benefit concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It turns out to be an unexpected challenge, full of new friends and mysterious dangers.

During the novel Katherine is befriended by several recurring characters from other L'Engle novels, including Mimi Oppenheimer from "A Winter's Love", Josiah "Dave" Davidson from "The Young Unicorns", and Suzy Austin (now Dr. Suzy Davidson) from the Austin family series.

The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, which figures prominently in the plot of "A Severed Wasp", is also the setting for the 1968 L'Engle novel "The Young Unicorns". The author herself was librarian and writer-in-residence at the same cathedral for several decades.

This story takes place last in the L'Engle canon, as it features an adult Suzy Austin. No novel published after took place during or after the events of this one.

External links

* [http://www.madeleinelengle.com/ L'Engle's Official Site]