NICHOLAI HEL.... Born in the ravages of WWI China to an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father, raised in the spiritual gardens of a Japanese Go master, he survives the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world's most artful lover and it's most accomplished and highly paid assassin. Genius, mystic, master of language and culture, Hel's secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection..... shibumi. Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his magnificent Eurasion mistress, Hel faces his most sinister enemy --- a super-monolith of espionage and monopoly. The battle lines are drawn, ruthless power and corruption on one side and on the other...... SHIBUMI
Maybe the best book I've ever read.
I didn't go into this understanding it was satire (or when it had come out), had i only known.
Hace rato tenía ganas de leer una novela de agentes secretos, y en definitiva resultó bastante más agradable de lo que podría haber imaginado al principio. Es una lectura fácil aunque no necesariamente rápida, ciertamente menos veloz que una novela best seller de consumo tipo Dan Brown. En este sentido y a diferencia de lo que puede suceder con el best seller de producción masiva, es una novela respetuosa con el lector al mismo tiempo que honesta; entretenida y con un buen desarrollo de una historia que quizas no resultará en un aporte a la literatura pero sí a pasar un buen rato.
Shibumi is a much better novel than one might guess from, say, looking at the description on the back. Plus, this is the book that introduced me to Go, for which I am eternally grateful.
"In the long run the ‘minor’ virtues are the only ones that matter. Politeness is more reliable than the moist virtues of compassion, charity, and sincerity; just as fair play is more important than the abstraction of justice. The major virtues tend to disintegrate under the pressures of convenient rationalization. But good form is good form, and stands immutable in the storm of circumstance."
