The Nameless Land by M. Laszlo
Publisher: Alkira Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Psychological Drama
Rated: 4 stars
Review by Rose

This metaphysical novel, like its predecessor, Anastasia’s Midnight Song, is a mix of stream of consciousness narration and imaginary happenings. Mystical and mysterious, The Nameless Land follows the misadventures of Rupert Lux and Anastasia T Grace.

Rupert, a young New Zealander working as a night clerk in a hotel in Sinai, is beset by a daemon that inhabits his eye. His delusion is much the same as Anastasia’s was when she was tormented by the Arctic fox and the diadem spider in the earlier book.

Anastasia, now blind, travels to Sinai at the behest of a Spiritualist Society to seek hidden treasure by dowsing. She longs to find someone she can heal and love. Perhaps Rupert is the one she can save and thereby save herself.

But Rupert is plagued by females who seem to blend into one another and appear and disappear at will. Traumatised by childhood abuse, he worries that he is not worthy of love. He races headlong through many strange encounters, while Anastasia maintains a calmer stance, though troubled by what she is being coerced into doing. She has been urged to find lost Egyptian treasure and, though reluctant, manages to do so. A sense of menace attends the discovery.

Both protagonists are troubled by wild imaginings and beset by odd visions, smells, sounds, and touches as the pair descend into hallucinatory madness. This is a fast-paced metaphysical adventure, the events hiding many layers of emotional turmoil and insanity. The reader is whisked through a dreamlike landscape, disoriented, and made to experience a kind of madness themselves.

THE NAMELESS LAND is the second book in Anastasia’s travels and begins shortly after the incidents in ANASTASIA’S MIDNIGHT SONG (see our review here). However, if you haven’t read the first book, no worries. It definitely can be read alone.

Anastasia, now blind, falls victim to a group of spiritualists who use her in their pursuit of treasure. She very much wants to be free…that is her overriding pursuit during the course of the book, but she escapes from one group only to fall victim to yet another. She wonders if perhaps Rupert Lux, a hotel clerk in Sinai will be the one to set her free.

Rupert has longed to meet Anastasia but has his one daemon to face – and this leads him to not know what to do. Overcome with different hallucinations and dreamlike episodes, he is beset on all sides.

Mr. Laszlo brings his readers into this world and invites them to join the madness and the dreams that surround Anastasia and Rupert. Beautifully written, you never quite know what is real and what the characters have imagined. This leads to a big of tension during the reading, and that’s not a bad thing. There is definitely a depth to his writing that can take more than one reading to completely dive into.