Moth

By Michael Takeda

Young, gay heroin addicts in Urbino, Italy have enough problems but when one of their group connects with a golden stranger who shares a mysterious affliction, a tale about everyday lives riddled with addiction turns into a brutally destructive narrative about sex as a compulsion, coupled with sociopathological transformations. A novel both literary and evocative of the traditional horror or vampire genres, Takeda's Moth straddles the real and the surreal brilliantly, making its own dark magic.