WITHOUT LOVE

A sombre, savage novel of the derelict suvivors of an anonymous anarchist organization who now, in Barcelona, Spain, carry on their dog-eat-dog reprisals. It is a furtive, fugitive life, and Mike Brennan, on the assignment which he senses will be his last, knows not only the bitterness of the defeat of the postwar world but also the personal default of his Catholic faith. Tempted by the desire to begin again, to find a little peace with Lola- the whore who offers him a gentle forgetfulness, he must carry out the orders of his superior- Kowalski- to kill an international agitator. He fulfills his mission- only to learn that Kowalski is the wanted man who in turn will kill him, but it is Lola, in a moment of querulous hatred- and love- who catapults him to his death.... Not to be favorably compared with his earlier novels, the Prinkers of . The Year of the Lion, etc., this new book is marked by its dark passion and penitence and its characters are flayed by a sense of personal isolation and spiritual repudiation. In the change of scene and style, an equal conviction is not sustained.