His Name was Death

A bitter drunk forsakes civilization and takes to the jungle, trapping animals, selling their pelts to buy liquor for colossal benders, and slowly rotting away in his fetid hut. His neighbors, a clan of the Amazonian Lacodon tribe, however, see something more in him than he does himself (they call him Wise Owl): when he falls deathly ill, a shaman named Black Ant saves his life--and, almost by chance, in driving out his fever, she drives out his demons as well, curing him of his alcoholism. Slowly recovering, but lying weak in his hammock, our hero discovers a curious thing: the buzzing of the mosquitoes, which to human ears seemed so irritating and pointless, perhaps, in fact, constitutes a language--a language he might learn, and (with the help of a flute) even speak: slowly, with astonishing implications and consequences, he masters Mosquil. Will he harness the global might of the mosquitoes? And will his new powers enable him to avenge himself on society and take over the world? A book far ahead of its time, His Name Was Death looks down the gun barrel of both ecological disaster and colonial exploitation.…