Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Marcelo Cohen, Giramondo Publishing, $24.95.
Crossing ethical boundaries can lead sometimes to devastating consequences. Such is the case with well-off and domineering woman, Lerena Dost, and her psychoanalyst Suano Botilecue.
Disgrace follows after their relationship becomes public as they cross the moral boundary. As a result, they lose everything, but not for long. An accidental meeting with a mysterious woman in an elevator lodges a number in Lerena’s mind.
That’s her trump card after she plays it in a lottery – and ends up winning!
Resisting the urge to spend her new-found fortune until her benefactor can be rewarded, she sets out to find her. It turns out that Dona Munava is a famous leader of a spiritual cult hidden away in the countryside far from the city.
Joined by Suano, Lerena sets out on a road trip travelling across the Panoramic Delta to find her. What she discovers is a futuristic world that’s strangely familiar, very much like her own, but with unforeseen adjustments to its settings, details and even the language.
The author’s imaginative style, skillfully translated by Chris Andrews, creates a dreamy ambiance in which the one-time lovers revive their relationship, and handle the implications.
Melodrome is the third in Giramondo’s Southern Latitudes series.
