Not Heaven but Paradise by Michael Mewshaw Hardback Book 9781609531522

The son of a Spanish mother and an American father who claimed to have worked for the CIA Paul Stewart lives in his family home a carmen in the Albaicamp237iacuten district of Granada The house which surrounds a lush courtyard has foundations that date from Spains Islamic era and has been in the family for generations Struggling to make ends meet Paul has turned the carmen into an artistamp8217s residency that caters primarily to American artists The only current guests are Simone a celebrity painter with a sexualized reputation and an asylumseeking Algerian professor who is the subject of a fatwa Paul has been forced to take him in An African refugee named Blessed whoamp8217s been displaced by the arrival of the professor suffers a crisis of both body and faith as a result The relationship between Simone and Paul begins to complicate matters and suspicions about everybody abound Murky pasts and private agendas collide with avowed intentionsincluding those of the US governmentamp8212as events gather momentum toward an explosive revelatory finish In the hands of Michael Mewshaw a master storyteller this story fairly shines in our fraught age of political secrets and...