Infinite Books

“Touched,” the new novel by Walter Mosley, recognized mainly by his crime novels, is rooted in our fear for the future of humans and our planet. It finally happens: the different beings from “a vast range of planes and realities,” as the author suggests, have decided that our species has entered the stage when our existence is no longer safe for the universe. Therefore, 107 people are chosen to become a cure, and Martin Just is one of those. Their methods are different and contradictory, but we follow the actions of just two individuals: Martin Just, a Black family man who symbolizes Life, and Waxman, who represents Death.

Another being, Temple, can sometimes overcome Martin. Temple is a much more potent, violent, and virile man. It’s almost a schizophrenic transformation when Temple takes over Martin’s body – with Martin’s approval – when the real Martin is in danger. Martin, by nature, is a peaceful man, caring for his wife and two children. Still, he is prosecuted and imprisoned after one of his neighbors notices him standing naked on the balcony. In a primarily white, affluent Los Angeles neighborhood, the everyday life of a Black family is not easy, even in regular times, not just when Death is on the loose and we see zombies, a mysterious moth, and a dog who is worse than the Hound of the Baskervilles.

The novel’s language demonstrates that we deal with the writer who knows his art. It’s atmospheric, with beautiful sentences like “he didn’t have so much as a paper bag for luggage.” Even though science fiction thriller is not a genre I read frequently, I was impressed, especially by the insightful, philosophical conclusion that makes Life conquer Death. As Martin states at the novel’s end, “Death was little more than the punctuation used to define the long story of Life.”

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley, Grove Atlantic, 2023