Counterparts

This is a superb first novel from an author known for his unusual, oneiric short stories. The setting is Europe in the late '80s, right before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The form is of two -- or perhaps three -- parallel tales about men who are spirit twins. The mood is that of existential anomie. The horror appears in such themes as genital mutilation, identity splitting, paranoia, ambiguously real/unreal nightmares and the birth of a monstrous child. Elegantly written and profoundly disturbing.