Awesome. Beautiful, dark. ( )

A moving tale about a down-and-out irreligious bum whose hands develop strange stigmata which turn his life upside-down. The black and white line drawings by Lorenzo Mattotti are very expressive. Ultimately this does become a religious tale, but is not too much the worse for that. ( )

i love the artwork in this book. Lorenzo Mattotti does a great job at this very "sketchy", "scribbly" style. the pages look really good although the artwork seems simple. it feels as if the images are emerging from the caos of a very nervous line. the story is sad and brutal at times and although it seems the subject of the stigmata (wounds that resemble those of the crucifixion) is overtly religious, it is actually hard to pinpoint the devotion of the story to any one christian religion. i think it is used well as an artifice of the story. a beautiful book. ( )

If you think you know what this work is about by reading the title, you'd be wrong. Yes it does deals with the stigmata, that mysterious "miracle" given to people, often those of devout faith, that symbolizes Christ's wounds. But this book is so much more than that. You see the main character, the one that gets the stigmata in this book, isn't of devout faith. In fact he's about as far as you can come from it. He drinks, he's probably done drugs before, he sleeps around, he's the type of guy that you would say came from the wrong end of town. But that just makes it more powerful as that's probably the type of guy that Christ would have come back for.

The book follows this one man as he deals with the effects of having these wounds that never heal. We see how people treat him often disbelieving that someone so like him could ever have something so devout. Often convinced that he's doing it to himself, judging him for what he looks like. We see how he treats people that do believe. And we see how he evolves through out the story. And when I say he evolves in the story please don't think he's become super religious and the authors want you to come to one religion. Because it isn't. The character does evolve, does grow, as we all do in our life. And this is a story of faith, but a faith that is open to any.

This is a powerful work. The drawings are all done in black and white and have an almost feral energy to them with their sketchy line quality. This is the type of book that makes you think...about everything. It should be a must read for everyone, regardless of religious persuasion. ( )

A drunkard loser awakes one day to find stigmata on his hands and so begins his trials through life as he struggles to find peace with his place in the world and to discover some meaning for the existence of his marks.

I found this novel to be quietly powerful and subtle all at once. The artwork has a scribbled quality to it and it lures you into a false sense of depth. You realise as you read on that the layers of meaning in this book are almost bottomless and you can take as much or as little as you please from the story.

Our protagonist stumbles through life with his bleeding hands, some calling him a saint, others calling him cursed. The one time he does find acceptance and happiness, his hands begin to heal and then the theme of cursed really comes into play, culminating in a massive storm that sweeps away his love, hope and meaning in life.

I know I didn't get all of the many ideas put forward in this book but I did enjoy this read immensely and although not an uplifting novel, it really does leave you with a lot to think about. At first I thought the style of art was 'off' for this novel but on reflection I think they chose the images wisely and it assists the struggle for meaning theme in the book.

A very modern take on an old parable. ( )