Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

  (Next Chapter, 2026). ASIN: B0GGXYZVRD Over the years, I have come to expect a lot from Bob van Laerhoven’s novels and this one not only doesn’t disappoint—it might just be the best one yet. The prologue begins in Munich in April 1920 with an evocative diary entry by an unidentified author, written to a dead brother about his murdered dog; it’s barely a page. The novel repeatedly returns to excerpts from the diary, identifying the author only as a rabid antisemite who identifies with Parcival, the Grail Quests, Lohengrin, and the Spear of Destiny and who twists the words of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to suit his warped, weaponized Weltanschauung . Chapter one opens in April 1921, when antisemitism was already ubiquitous, with lyrics from a cabaret song about cocaine. It’s a time when the “People’s Court” in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison still dispenses “justice” by beheading. A German psychiatrist eyes an exotic, “half-Chinese” woman in the sweltering heat with obvious add...

  [Translated from Dutch by Vernon Pearce] (Next Chapter, 2025). ISBN: 978-4824156709 In 2021, I was asked to review a novel by an author named Bob Van Laerhoven. Set in South America in a time of revolution and turmoil, Alejandro’s Lie had the kind of depth and dark beauty of story and character that reminded me of Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz , Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind , and Frank Delaney’s Ireland —novels that you don’t just read; instead, you enter them fully and inhabit them, as they inhabit you. After such a memorable, moving experience, I welcomed the chance to review The Long Farewell , especially when I saw that it took place before and during World War II. Although I’ve long been fascinated by the rise of the Nazis, with all that’s happening today (especially in America, where I reside), I’ve been compelled to read book after book about the years 1938 to 1945. As I started The Long Farewell , I’d just finished one book by Erik La...

  (Next Chapter, 2021). ISBN: 9798451056851 For the past three years, as part of my work as a Chautauquan and historical education specialist, I have portrayed Ernesto “Che” Guevara, one of the key personalities in the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro in the late 1950s. Much has been made of Che—to some a hero/Messiah-like savior and to others a heartless mass murderer. He is admittedly complex. As are all who choose the life of the revolutionary. This is the core subject matter of Alejandro’s Lie . Taking place in a fictitious country called Terreno (meaning “ground”) in 1983, which has suffered a military takeover ( junta) and now dictatorship by General Pelaron (meaning “to skin an animal”), the book explores the motivations of both those on the side of the general and those fighting against him. Although the book is rife with political complexities, it is primarily a character study. The main characters in this drama are the Alejandro of the title, who is a former ...