To The Last Page

At the centre of Amulet is Auxilio Lacouture, an exile from Uruguay who has come to Mexico in 1965 turning up on the doorsteps of poets León Felipe and Pedro Garfías, dusting and cleaning, anything to just be in their presence and bathe in their majesty. Everything changes however when the military occupy the university in Mexico City in September 1968 and Auxilio, occupying the ladies bathroom of the fourth floor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, is the only person remaining undetected in the building. Whether what follows is real or imagined by Auxilio over the twelve days in a semi-hallucinatory state, partly induced by the reading of poetry, it’s clear that the incident at the university is an event of major importance for the nation, the fulcrum for what is to unfold. In the subsequent years Auxilio becomes, or perhaps sees herself, as the mother of Mexican poetry for a new generation, a friend of surrealist artists, avant-garde poets, writers and theatre directors, am...

The North Carolina mountains are the setting for an epic battle of greed, commerce and self-interest on a level of Paul Thomas Anderson’s recent film ‘ There Will Be Blood ’, only in the case of Ron Rash’s novel it’s timber rather than oil that is the natural resource in question. Essentially though it’s land that lies at the heart of the issue, whether to exploit it for its natural resources or give it up to the government authorities who claim they want to convert it into national park, and it’s in the struggle that develops for the ownership of this valuable natural resource that, for better or worse, the spirit of American free-enterprise is defined – boundless ambition, naked greed and a high cost paid for in blood. Interestingly, while the men are certainly the main players in the titanic struggle that erupts here between big business and government, it’s the women behind the scenes who call the shots, driven by their own personal agendas. Pemberton, the owner of the timber empir...

It's not unusual for characters in Simenon's novels to be deeply flawed individuals, suffering from alcoholism, conducting illicit affairs, and emotionally estranged from their partners, but although many such cases end up before Lhomond, the Presiding Judge at a Paris Law Court, the judge himself would until recently have considered himself beyond any such reproach. He works assiduously late into the evening and looks after his ailing wife, but one night when leaving a disreputable local bar that he has entered in order to make a phone-call to the doctor for his wife, he is seen by the prosecution lawyer on a murder case he is working on, and feels that the innocent act may have given the wrong impression. That impression is not helped by Lhomond coming down with the flu, looking under the weather the next morning and smelling of alcohol from a quick shot of brandy taken to ease the symptoms. The judge realises the figure he must present, but knows he is helpless to correct th...

The companion volume to She-Lover of Death  - although both novels function completely standalone but for a few minor cross-references - He-Lover of Death focuses on another young innocent individual with a fascination for Death. In this case however, Death is the name by which a beautiful young woman is known, a consort of the Prince, the leader of most notorious and ruthless gang of criminals in the Khritrovka district of Moscow, while the young man in the thrall of this deadly femme fatal is merely a common street thief, Senka Skorik. Erast Petrovich Fandorin meanwhile is still persona non grata in Moscow, but his investigative abilities are needed more than ever, as there is a brutal murderer operating in the thieves’ quarter and red-light district of Khritrovka, a ruthless killer who leaves no living being at the scene of his crimes, a killer perhaps even more dangerous than the Decorator. Fandorin believes that the killer may be looking for young Senka Skorik, who has someho...

Zatoichi? Blind swordsman? Pah! How about a blind swordsman with no arms and no legs either? That would be the condition of Hyakkimaru, his father, samurai general Lord Daigo having forged a deal with forty-eight demons, offering each of them a part of his new-born son in return for bestowing great powers on him. The deformed child is abandoned, but is rescued by a maverick Black Jack-like doctor who creates prosthetic limbs for the child. On discovering from one of the many supernatural creatures drawn to this unusual child that to regain his missing body parts he must find and destroy each of the forty-eight demons, Hyakkimaru becomes a wandering swordsman with weapons in place of his missing limbs. On one of his journeys he encounters Dororo, a fearless child and beggar thief with an equally troubled past. Dororo has an intriguing storyline, one that draws effectively from Japanese ghost and demon mythology. Anyone familiar with Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo will find those themes an...

The second book of Kim Dong Hwa’s manwha (Korean manga), following on from The Colour of Earth , continues with Ehwa’s exploration and discovery of the mysteries of her developing body and her feelings, particularly in relation towards men. The now adolescent Ehwa discovers the powerful forces that can be unleashed within her and the part that men have to play in this, but she is getting conflicting messages from her widowed mother’s relationship with a wandering picture man, and from her school friend Bongsoon.  In many respects, the three books that make up the trilogy (this second volume to be concluded in The Colour of Heaven ) are simply a coming-of-age guide for young girls, told delicately in a late 19th century Korean setting, with allusive and poetic imagery of flowers and butterflies – but the artwork is quite beautiful and the stories delicately structured and heart-warming. FirstSecond’s fine edition helpfully includes extensive context setting notes and discussion poin...