Writer Janet Mason, of Mt. Airy, tackles a complex question in her new book, “The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics.” How does long-term love shape people?

The author of seven books and three poetry collections offers an answer by examining not only the life of photographer Berenice Abbott and her partner, Elizabeth McCausland, a noted art critic, but also the author’s own life while quarantining with her now-wife, Barbara McPherson (“Frannie” in the book).

This page-turner by Mason, whose work has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize and who is also a lay minister with the Unitarian Universalists of Mt. Airy (formerly the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration), also offers an insider’s view of photographic and art history. This includes how, through Abbott’s efforts, Eugene Atget, who photographed historic Paris environments, came to be known as a master of photography that history accorded him.

Abbott, who survived the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920, is known for, among other things, her photography while living in Paris for a decade in the 1920s and her work photographing Manhattan in the 1930s. Elizabeth McCausland was often overlooked in her lifetime, especially as Abbott’s long-term partner.

According to the publisher notes, “Mason brings together these four queer lives in the past and the present in long-term relationships that require compromise and forgiveness as she gives shape to the shadows and reveals what can be learned from hidden lives. Ultimately, including the author’s and her partner’s choice to go to a plant-based diet for health and ethical reasons, it’s all about love.”

The book has been receiving unanimously laudatory reviews. In a review by Louis Greenstein, author of “The Song of Life,” Mason’s new book “puts a focus on two long-term loving relationships a century apart while navigating a judgmental society, artistic freedom, a pandemic, health and nutrition, road trips and what it means to grow old together. Mason’s genius lies in her talent for synthesizing two stories from different eras to reveal truths about how to live.”

Maria Famà, author of “Trigger,” wrote in a review, “In ‘The Lens of Eternity,’ Janet Mason explores enduring lesbian relationships, veganism, health and living one’s truth as an artist and compassionate human being. … Readers will enjoy Mason’s humor and insights in this wise book.”

I thoroughly enjoyed two previous novels by Mason, an occasional blogger for such outlets as the Huffington Post. Her wonderful book, “Tea Leaves, a Memoir of Mothers and Daughters” was chosen by the American Library Association for its 2013 “Over the Rainbow List,” and it received a Goldie Award, presented annually by the Peer Choice Awards organization.

After having various “day jobs” for most of her life, Mason, now 67, retired early and devoted herself to full-time writing for the last decade. She and McPherson have been together for 43 years and married for 12.

“We got married a year before it was legal nationwide,” she told the Local last week. “We had a protest marriage in Montgomery County, which went rogue and started marrying same-sex couples in ceremonies that turned out eventually to be legal.”

One of the issues Mason explores in great detail in “Lens of Eternity” is the fact that she and her wife went to a plant-based diet in the fall of 2019 after she had a serious health scare. “I initially went to the plant-based diet when my acupuncturist, Elise Rivers [who lives and practices in Chestnut Hill], strongly suggested it,” Mason said.

“After going to a plant-based diet for health reasons, my partner and I both had consciousness-raising experiences about the rights of animals not to be eaten and for eating the best way for the future of the environment. We have been to the Cow Sanctuary in New Jersey, where farm animals are taken and rescued so they can be cared for and live out the remainder of their natural lives instead of being slaughtered for food at a young age. The feeling of freedom at the Cow Sanctuary is amazing.

“We go to the annual ‘Vegan ThanksLiving Potluck Dinner,’ hosted by Zipora Schultz and the Vegan Spirituality Group of Philadelphia at the Chestnut Hill Meetinghouse, which is quite remarkable. There’s food, music, positive stories about animals and community. People who are not yet vegan are more than welcome to come. We went before becoming vegan ourselves. So becoming plant-based has definitely changed my life. For starters, I credit it with keeping me alive.”

Some of Mason’s other books that have received critical acclaim include “The Unicorn, The Mystery” and “THEY,” a biblical tale of secret genders, and “Loving Artemis,” an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage. Her next book will be a memoir, “LOST: A Daughter Navigates the Loss of a Father and Discovers What It Means To Belong.”

For more information, visit janetmason.org. You can reach Len Lear at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.