While attending a scientific conference in Poland New Orleans neuroscientist, Dr. Alvaro Cruz, visits Auschwitz and faces the ghosts of his own harrowing escape from Argentina’s “Dirty War” of the 1970’s.
When he and his wife meet an American artist-priest just outside the entrance of the notorious concentration camp Alvaro is inexplicably drawn to this enigmatic man and his stories about the icon of Catholic Poland known as “The Black Madonna” and a religious vision he experienced as a young art student. After returning to Krakow Alvaro can’t get the comments and demeanor of young Father Stephen out of his mind.
When Alvaro’s colleague invites him to visit the Jasna Gora Monastery where the famed Black Madonna of Częstochowa is housed he jumps at the opportunity.
During his visit to the monastery an elderly woman becomes hysterical about the changed appearance of the Madonna, and suffers an epileptic seizure ; she insists this is not the real Black Madonna, confirming his own odd sensation that the painting was not authentic!
In his obsession with discovering the truth Alvaro begins to piece together fragments of the complex mystery surrounding the icon’s history. What his findings reveal, the real story of the Black Madonna and the people charged with protecting her, could never have been anticipated. What comes to light is a stunning revelation not only about the painting but also about human frailty and our mind’s ability to overcome it.
Like Bazan’s previous Alvaro Cruz novel, Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind, The Dark Madonna: A Fable of Imagination and Resiliency is a compelling narrative interplay of religion, science, culture, and art. Where scientific explanation ends and religious mystery begins lies the open synapse that connects human with divine.
FIVE STAR REVIEW:
The Dark Madonna: A Fable of Resiliency and Imagination by Nicolas Bazan
is absolutely mesmerizing with its intriguing blend of fact and
fiction! With few pages, the tale of art forgery, greed, and religious
beliefs and mysteries leads a scholar on a journey across continents and cultures that left me wanting more from this brilliant author.
Nicolas Bazan has written with a passionate pen, telling his story in the first person, deeply emotional and moving, almost like a pilgrimage of self-discovery and inner awakening as I was taken to ghostly remains of the German prison camps, where the determination to survive and the spirit of those who died there could be felt in the air. On visiting Poland, almost drawn by fate, our main character finds his scientific expertise put to good use when a sacred relic appears to be a clever forgery and a young religious man goes missing. Who is behind this great deception of the faith of the masses? Will the vandal be found? Will the relic be found? Were the reasons behind its theft truly evil or misguided? Can the answer to a religious mystery be found in science?
Nicolas Bazan has written with a passionate pen, telling his story in the first person, deeply emotional and moving, almost like a pilgrimage of self-discovery and inner awakening as I was taken to ghostly remains of the German prison camps, where the determination to survive and the spirit of those who died there could be felt in the air. On visiting Poland, almost drawn by fate, our main character finds his scientific expertise put to good use when a sacred relic appears to be a clever forgery and a young religious man goes missing. Who is behind this great deception of the faith of the masses? Will the vandal be found? Will the relic be found? Were the reasons behind its theft truly evil or misguided? Can the answer to a religious mystery be found in science?
Wonderfully entertaining and well-written, this short novella feels like a much longer work with its attention to detail and deeply thought-out plot.
I highly recommend it!
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