Heart of the Volcano Author:Michael Morrissey ‘The moon was swallowed up in a faceless rush of cloud, the cold increasing. If he did not reach the top he had failed, he did not love her. The top of the mountain was to be his turning point. When he reached that he would turn back for home and for Helen. But would he reach the top?’ Grant, an expat New Zealander, is wandering through G... more »uatemala when he meets Suloski, a Jewish-American painter. Across Lake Atitlan, where he has watched a young German woman swim naked, lies a conical mountain. He agrees to climb it with Suloski, together with Birgot, who regards Grant as an intruder, and Juan, a quasi-mystical Spaniard who has written a book on UFOs. Will Birgot’s attitude change? Juan offers peyote as their food and water run out. Grant thinks of Helen, his partner back in Auckland. Is their love intact? A jaguar is after his heart and the guerrillas are after his boots. Can he survive the volcano? ‘Vintage Morrissey ; muscular, tense, sexy, scary. The dialogue is – as ever – brilliant. It’s a very good story, well told. The ending is terrific.’ – Bernard Brown« less