Shirley Haas

The source for this book is a manuscript from about 1970, let by the late Joseph Haas, reviewer and reporter for the Chicago Daily News. The narrator, reporter Matt Collins, chances on a story that could upend the establishment back in D.C. and puts his life at risk to investigate, while trying to get the girl, get out of there in one place, and help [him find the humanity in] his captors in his own hard boiled way.

The setting is Omnia, a secret island that lives by communal rules and the patronage of the government, its inhabitants too deformed to be assimilated by modern society, but capable of performing classical music, playing masterful chess games, and reading the books that aren’t censored for their own good. The indelible characters he meets all have something to say about his unexpected appearance, and the inevitable conflict bubbles tensely along throughout until it explodes in unexpected directions.

The narrator, reporter Matt Collins, chances on a story that could upend the establishment back in D.C. and puts his life at risk to investigate, while trying to get the girl, get out of there in one place, and help him find the humanity in his captors in his own hard boiled way. The setting is Omnia, a secret island that lives by communal rules and the patronage of the government, its inhabitants too deformed to be assimilated by modern society, but capable of performing classical music, playing masterful chess games, and reading the books that aren’t censored for their own good. The indelible characters he meets all have something to say about his unexpected appearance, and the inevitable conflict bubbles tensely along throughout until it explodes in unexpected directions.