Bleeding Light
by Rob Benvie
In this deliriously patterned novel, Benvie’s disorienting brew of madmen, poets, and visionaries shifts from Germany to Kenya, India to Mexico City, suburbia to a Joshua Tree hideaway. The book unfolds in four interwoven stories: ill-fated love stories, stories about addiction to drugs and power, with a mix of violence and tenderness tempered by humour. Connecting these disparate strands is a mysterious “bleeding light,” a gateway to other realms. What waits on the other side—and what becomes of those who pass into its radiance—is a mystery. Bleeding Light is a grimly funny and often trippy take on transcendence that reveals the symbolic fabric connecting us all.