The Wine of Violence

By: James Morrow

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Synopsis: On a distant planet, two human societies keep an uneasy equilibrium—one nonviolent, the other ferocious—in this &“triumphant writing performance&” (Atlantic City Press). A fact-finding mission has crash-landed on a harsh world, leaving entomologist Francis Lostwax and physicist Burne Newman marooned. The scientists are rescued by a mysterious society whose inhabitants are wholly incapable of murder, assault, rape, or any other form of aggression. Protected by a river made of liquid hate, the descendants of Quetzalia&’s original human colonists have devised a strange techno-religion that has in turn engendered a culture of total pacifism. While Burne undertakes to rid the planet of the savage and menacing brain-eaters that flourish beyond the utopia&’s walls, Francis cultivates his romantic feelings for Tez Yon, the Quetzalian surgeon who saved his life. But the entomologist&’s obsession with Tez&’s soul leads him down a dark and twisted path, in time confronting him with a terrible dilemma. Should he murder the woman he loves to save a society he abhors?