Books - The devil & Miss Prym

Given the right set of circumstances every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil

I start this review by quoting from www.book-club.co.nz

~ The stranger is haunted by a tragic past and arrives in the little village carrying a fortune in gold and accompanied by the devil. He confronts the youngest person of the village, Chantal Prym with his proposition. A test - the villagers must commit an evil act, a murder, to receive the reward - the gold. The test is to prove or unprove his thesis that "given the right set of circumstances every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil". ~

When I completed reading this book, I had 3 reactions

First – the myriad of turns & takes in the book left me clueless how to sum up this story as simply as possible, how else to say except impossible?

The richly described emotions, settings & scenes, just put me directly into that dimension, as if I was looking at the story in life unfold before me … and I could imagine the lost feeling Chantal had … just as if I was in her.

A test had been set, the rules of the game subjective to players & a great mastermind, whose twisted mind has all figured out & playing the game to his tune where any misstep is a folly; as aptly named, he IS the devil whose aim is to turn anyone and if possible, everyone into committing the sin. He seems to have calculated every step, from the inception of the game to the coup de grace to his backup plans & escape.

By exploring his demented mind, I made note of a few observations … it’s not only that he’s the devil in setting the entire trap, but also, the thought that if someone can play a game where lives of people are at stake to ‘test’ his theory sounds really sick, he clearly has no sliver of humanity or conscience left in his soul.

But tormented people have this interesting aura, that there could always be another possible side of the coin … and as found out later in the story, he was trying to find a message to redeem himself after a personal loss (for you to read & discover what it is) … but does that warrant such a high price of human lives?

Or could he be possible be the archangel who has placed this test to Ms. Chantal on her morality?

To put it simply … my friends who thrive on thriller masterpieces, enjoy them because of the rush & satisfaction from uncovering facts & twists of wit in their pursuits. When I completed this book, I cannot help but feel the similar satisfaction, except that, the twists & turns are not facts, but realms of the human emotion.

A rich exploration of the moral matters close to our hearts. 4 stars from five.

Notes

from ReadingGroups

The Devil and Miss Prym concludes the trilogy And on the Seventh Day, which also featured By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept and Veronika Decides to Die.

“Each of the three books is concerned with a week in the life of ordinary people, all of who find themselves suddenly confronted by love, death and power,” says Paulo. “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.”

From Bibliofemme

Human greed, cowardice, fear and the very subject of temptation are dramatised in the most compelling way. What at first appears to be a simple tale of this age-old struggle is in fact something much more complicated - because the choice between good and evil is not always so simple to make.