Three Poisons is a collection of three short stories “giving remarkably vivid and imaginative expression, in a contemporary setting” of the three hindrances to freedom: greed, ill-will and delusion. The setting is South Africa and, far from being bitter or nihilistic, the stories are shot through with an affection for humanity—its cultures and its frailties. It “bears testament to the subtlety of Pillay’s understanding of philosophy, the slippery cleft between normality/madness and the complexity of ordinary lives in an extraordinary society.” Nowhere does Kriben tell us what to think, but he sets us on a path to make our own enquiry—or just to enjoy three first-rate, truly original short stories.
