Divorce literal and metaphorical is the subject of Valerie Martin's magnificent new novel. As in the internationally acclaimed Mary Reilly, her retelling of the classic tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Great Divorce charts the territories of division - between humanity and nature and within the human psyche.

Pulling together two distinct worlds - contemporary New Orleans and its antebellum counterpart - Valerie Martin explores the lives of three intriguing women, each possessed with mind and will, each struggling to remain whole as divisive forces threaten.

At the novel's center is Ellen Clayton, a veterinarian at New Orleans's zoo, who fights to bring her family safely through the rupture of a crumbling marriage. Her departing husband, an historian in love with a younger woman, is researching the story of "The Catwoman of St. Francisville," the only white woman in Louisiana history hanged for murder: Elisabeth Boyer, a wealthy Creole beauty whose fatal marriage to an intolerant older man resulted in her captivity and, finally, his violent death.

Elisabeth's legend finds an echo in Camille, a troubled young woman who works with the big cats at the zoo, and who finds herself caught in terrifyingly real fantasies of becoming one of them.