First published 1989
Ash works as a commercial illustrator, moving between the grittiest neighborhoods of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. His profession takes him through cities where poverty and corruption shape daily life. The work pays the bills, but something deeper drives him from place to place, client to client, never settling anywhere for long. Each new assignment pulls Ash further into urban environments that mirror his own restless state. The people he encounters live by different rules than the comfortable middle class back home. Money changes hands in back rooms. Relationships form and dissolve without ceremony. Everyone seems to be running from something or chasing something just out of reach. Ash finds himself caught between his role as an observer, documenting these worlds through his art, and his growing entanglement in the lives around him. The boundaries between his professional distance and personal involvement begin to blur. His obsession with capturing the raw energy of these places threatens to consume him entirely.
Genres: fiction, art, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, fish-out-of-water, observer-protagonist
Setting: Caribbean, Latin America, United States
Period: 21st-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Bloomsbury