Touched

by Walter Mosley

Overview

Intergalactic visions, deadly threats, and explosive standoffs between mostly good and completely evil converge in a dystopian fantasy that could only be conceived by the inimitable Walter Mosley, one of the country’s most beloved and acclaimed writers

Martin Just wakes up one morning after what feels like, and might actually be, a centuries-long sleep with two new innate pieces of knowledge: Humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence. And he is the Cure.

Martin begins slipping into an alternate consciousness, with new physical strengths, to violently defend his family—the only Black family in their neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles— against pure evil. Think Octavia Butler meets Jeff VanderMeer meets Jordan Peele.

Expansive and innovative, sexy and satirical, Touched brilliantly imagines the ways in which human life and technological innovation threaten existence itself. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802161840
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	36,933
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Walter Mosley is the author of more than sixty critically-acclaimed books, including the major bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages and includes literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs, and a young adult novel. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a Grammy, PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and an Edgar Award. He lives in New York City.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

January 12, 1952

Place of Birth:

Los Angeles, California

Education:

B.A., Johnson State College

Website:

http://www.waltermosley.com

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Walter Mosley:

“Walter Mosley is best known as one of contemporary literature’s pre-eminent crime novelists, but he’s actually four or five different writers rolled into one… He’s an altogether thornier, more idiosyncratic writer than readers may know, an inveterate investigator and chronicler of his own heart, mind and soul.” —New York Times

The prolific Mosley delights in the wonderfully bizarre… He unfurls into greater and frankly breathtaking complexity.”—New York Times on The Awkward Black Man

“[Near] the recent work of Julian Barnes and Roddy Doyle.”—Wall Street Journal on The Awkward Black Man

“We see [Mosley] as a chronicler of Black life in America.”—Washington Post on The Awkward Black Man

“Tinged with sardonic humor and acerbic observations, many echoing the pained, bristling voices of Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin.”—New Yorker on The Awkward Black Man

From the Publisher

08/01/2023

In Mosley's (Every Man a King) dystopian sci-fi novella, Martin Just wakes up and realizes that he has an alternate good consciousness, Temple, that has awoken after a centuries-long sleep and is the Cure for Humanity. Martin's search for understanding of his predicament starts a snowball effect that will see him hauled before the racist criminal-justice system and thrown into a prison cell, all suffered in order to come face to face with Death: Tor Waxman. Death seeks to destroy Humanity, and Martin must convince his family and a group of racist thugs to stand and fight. In this ongoing battle between good and evil, what sacrifices will need to be made to obtain victory? This dizzyingly alternative reality, combining quotidian evil banalities with intergalactic ones, is sometimes difficult going—not only because readers, like Martin, must figure out what is going on, but also for the systemic racism that serves as a catalyst and a backdrop for the ongoing feud. VERDICT A hard-hitting, topical story that fans of Mosley will enjoy.—Laura Hiatt

Library Journal

Leon Nixon narrates this novella like it's the latest news from a friend who just experienced something eerie and revelatory. The story features a man named Martin, aka Temple, who himself is the cure for a deadly virus. Nixon's pace and tone are engaging as he believably embodies characters who are rivals. However, he sounds slightly odd when he narrates the sultry voice of Martin's wife--especially during intimate scenes. But the story's action is elevated by his intensity as a possible doomsday seems near. Nixon captures the novel's juxtaposition of normal human experience and the horrors of a dystopian conflict. This is a fight for good over evil. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2024 - AudioFile

2023-07-13
An unsuspecting host finds himself at the center of a supernatural plot to eradicate life from the planet.

Rattled awake from a disorienting slumber—and apparently unaware of his own nudity and physical arousal—mild-mannered Black family man Marty Just wanders onto his balcony, the elaborate details of an intergalactic plan to end life on Earth seared into his mind. “Mama, look!” a neighbor child cries, and from that moment, Marty's week only gets weirder: He's arrested for public indecency; kills his vile, racist cellmate in a fugue state of self-defense; posts bail and returns home, only to encounter Aryan gang members ready to avenge their murdered leader. Until this point, the question of whether Marty has suffered a psychotic break or schizophrenic episode is unresolved, but then something inside Marty—an entity called Temple—takes over, attacking the racist thugs with his teeth, biting and tearing the life out of them in a marvelously frenzied action sequence. As it turns out, not only can Temple summon inhuman strength, he can resurrect the dead (!), and he recruits the formerly lifeless racists to help him prevent the encroaching genocide, personified by Tor Waxman, the Angel of Death. Equal parts body horror and necromancy, the book has cinematic fast cuts and an explosive pace that make it read like a Black Mirror episode set against the Hollywood Hills. While a subplot about Marty's pending legal woes adds little to the excitement (it wouldn't be Mosley without sharp-tongued lawyers and pushy cops), the novel is complicated in compelling ways by the racial dynamics and overt gestures toward a pandemic, as Tor Waxman spreads feverish death via unseen contagion to nearly 5,000 souls.

Fast-moving action and jaw-dropping twists move this slim volume along at a dizzying rate.

Kirkus Reviews