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The Village of Al-Hubu, the Wilderness of Sinai. 29 October, 1917.
Anastasia arrived at the seaside hamlet that had always fascinated her mother and checked into a lodging house—a hostelry resembling a Roman villa. She had come to the picturesque village because she believed that the mirror works must be the one true way to emancipate herself from the vile dream fox. During the journey across the desert, she had even devised a glorious scheme: she would master the art of mirror-making, and then she would imprison the entity inside one of her creations.
Up in her room, she removed the volume from her travel bag and reread the curious title:
LE PHéNOMèNE DE LA RêVERIE
A tap-tapping of paws caught her attention. Given her surroundings, she feared that a rabid desert fox, its gait uncertain, had stolen into the building. Oh God, what’ll the creature do once it enters my room? Perhaps it’ll seek to convince me that its malady has made it tame. And if that doesn’t work, maybe it’ll scratch at itself with its sharp claws and draw blood from its pointy ears and long muzzle and . . .
The sound of the uneven footfall discontinued, as if she had imagined all—so she opened the book and studied the map. I’m here in Sinai. I can’t believe it. Sinai! She retraced her steps downstairs to the lobby and exited the hostelry.
Inside her belly, the dream fox spoke up: ‘Why did you bring us here?’
A dazzling and immersive literary feat, M. Laszlo’s novel is a masterful exploration of psychological fragility and surreal experience. Blending historical fiction with phantasmagoric imagination, the story follows Anastasia and Jack—two complex figures whose lives unravel and converge across continents and consciousness. While rooted in early 20th-century St. Petersburg and a remote village on the Sinai Peninsula, the novel transcends time and place, inviting readers into richly textured interior worlds filled with supernatural imagery, fractured memories, and sensory excess.
This is a novel of ideas as much as narrative. Its nonlinear structure and abstract elements may challenge casual readers, but those who embrace its ambiguity will be rewarded with an emotionally and intellectually resonant experience. Laszlo blurs the boundaries between sanity and delusion, fate and chance, crafting a landscape where internal realities are as vivid and disorienting as the outer world.
At once a psychological study, a poetic meditation, and a cross-continental epic, this work demands—and deserves—close reading. It leaves a lasting impression and invites multiple interpretations.
Recommended for readers of literary fiction who appreciate psychological depth, dreamlike storytelling, and formal experimentation. Ideal for fans of authors like Virginia Woolf, Olga Tokarczuk, and David Mitchell.
M. Laszlo is the pseudonym of a reclusive author living in Bath, Ohio. According to rumor, he based the pen name on the name of the Paul Henreid character in Casablanca, Victor Laszlo.
M. Laszlo has lived and worked all over the world, and he has kept exhaustive journals and idea books corresponding to each location and post.
It is said that the maniacal habit began in childhood during summer vacations—when his family began renting out Robert Lowell’s family home in Castine, Maine.
The habit continued into the 1990s when he lived in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem and worked as a night clerk in a Palestinian youth hostel. In recent years, he revisited that very journal/idea book and based Anastasia’s Midnight Song on the characters, topics, and themes contained within the writings.
M. Laszlo has lived and worked in New York City, East Jerusalem, and several other cities around the world. While living in the Middle East, he worked for Harvard University’s Semitic Museum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio and an M.F.A. in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for the lovely review.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds very intriguing. Great cover!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteThis should be a great novel. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
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