The Lizard Cage

Item: The Lizard Cage
Author: WhichBook

Karen Connelly

I highly recommend this powerful story. It focuses on a famous protest singer who becomes a political prisoner locked up in solitary confinement. Although the prison conditions are harrowing and sadistic, the astute observations and Buddhist humanist influences are very poignant.

Extract

He cradles his skull in his hands and closes his eyes. When he opens them, he sees more lizards than usuual on the ceiling, stalking insects around the light. He whispers to the creatures above him 'Ha, you've all come back to the cell for a visit, have you? You must know that Hpo Hpo told me to stop eating you.' What did his granfather say? Every lizard is a small naked man.

Parallels