Alex Modzelewski

Demon of Darien Alex Modzelewski

His professional career crashed, his divorce barely concluded, and his son gone without a forwarding address, what is Morrison going to do? Like thousands of his peers, Doctor Arthur Morrison moves to Panama, the place famous for friendly young females, good weather, and a low cost of living. He follows his plan to study philosophy while he becomes a regular at the Europa bar. However, despite his initial enthusiasm, Arthur quickly descends into depression. Just as he gets familiar with the Icarus suicide club, Morrison meets a peculiar old man who has seemingly discovered the Fountain of Youth. The elder intrigues Arthur with the incredible stories meandering from the frozen field of wartime Poland to the steamy jungle of Darien, Panama. The circumcised baby found in the snow of Northern Europe transforms before his eyes into the jungle Demon conjuring common sense-defying miracles on the banks of La Tuira River. Seduced and manipulated, Arthur plunges into the tropical forest where the hostile environment competes for his attention with moral dilemmas he never considered. Benevolent drug traders, charitable trade in women... the doctor's well established ethical compass takes wild gyrations while he suffocates in the hellish heat. Readers of The Demon of Darien, comfortably seated in their armchairs, may have to adjust their customary set of moral rules as well. Through its action-packed narrative, the novel brings some unorthodox perspectives on love, death, and the rule of law. Painted against a background stretching from the Nazi and communist occupied Europe to the modern United States and the Panamanian jungle, this story assaults many commonly accepted, yet possibly false, assumptions governing our behavior.