Not long ago, David B. Gil lamented how long the shadow offered by his previous novel was and how it, added to some readers' inordinate expectations, could eclipse the story he so lovingly tells us in "Eight Million Gods". It is inevitable to compare; inevitable and pernicious if we take as a reference the enjoyment of the past experience, however similar it may be, in order to quantify the level of satisfaction of the recent event. We will discover that if we look around us the landscapes resemble each other and that some circumstances may have (or we try to have) parallels with those past experiences. only in this way will we be able to take a first step, of many, together with Martin Ayala and Kudo Kenjiro.
Martin Ayala is a Jesuit who spent a long time in Japan as a missionary. During that stay, he not only worried about talking about the goodness of his god but also soaked himself in the customs and language of that unknown place that was at the antipodes of his native home. Because of these acquired skills, Martin Ayala is chosen by the church to return to Japan with the mission of investigating ritual crimes. The victims: Christian parents. So that his person does not suffer any harm, a bodyguard is assigned to him. Kudo Kenjiro, a goshi, a lower-class samurai who must work the land to help his family move forward, will be chosen in such an ungrateful task. A stranger and a native give rise to a clash of cultures, although not in the way that might be expected since Martin Ayala has overcome the first obstacle for many years: he dominates the language to perfection. Thus, it will be the beliefs of each one, that faith deposited in family, nature, gods or spirits, that will be put to the test.
Such a singular couple will become the perfect guide to show us feudal Japan, a country that today, and through those echoes of the past that travel through the centuries, we can still find in some of the present traditions. The chosen itinerary will take us through forests, beaches or mountains. The landscapes are described by David B. Gil with a prose that not infrequently reaches a poetic and even musical lyricism. If it describes a dry and hot climate, we will sweat. If it is a snowfall that the protagonists face, we will be terrified by the cold. Cherry trees of ink and cellulose will intoxicate us with their aroma, the breeze whispering between the leaves will become audible. And all this while we feel in our own flesh each step taken by the couple Ayala Kenjiro by remote places that are palpable with each word, with each adjective that is chosen with precision.
"Eight million gods" goes from less to more: it begins as a historical crime novel that gradually reveals itself much more complex. As the investigation progresses, a complicated web of conspiracies will be uncovered in which smugglers, spies, and murderers want their part of the limelight and the cake. These plots will be followed by Martin Ayala and Kudo Kenjiro in the very eye of the hurricane. This will make them stop in violent situations (duels between samurai that will excite you or mass battles recreated with excellent verisimilitude that will make you spit your heart by the mouth), visit the underworld of port areas (where prostitution and illegal gambling campaigns at will), discover how the politics of one territory can be influenced by the economic boom of another, but above all they will be surprised (and we will be moved) when they find true friendship when they were least looking for it.
"Eight Million Gods" is not a great book just for the protagonist couple and their adventures, the cast of secondary characters, both those who really existed and those created for the occasion (with greater merit for the author by the latter) underpin with greater strength, making it more stable, the main story. Reiko and Igarashi Bokuden are two good examples. The first is a girl who had to adapt to the circumstances of her hard life in order to survive and become a strong and implacable woman in a male-ruled world. The second is an assassin who is an expert in disgraced infiltration techniques who will do everything possible to successfully achieve his mission, even if it leads him headlong into a complicated dance of deception and betrayal. Two secondaries with the value of a few protagonists.
In short, in Eight Million Gods (Sum of Letters) we will venture into a feudal Japan as beautiful as cruel from the hand of a couple of protagonists who become unforgettable for the fierce friendship they forge.
"They say that true friendship is a flower in the wind: it arrives unexpectedly and in the same way it must be let go."