The Brothel Boy and Other Parables of the Law

The mystery does not always end when the crime has been solved. Indeed, the most engaging problems of crime and punishment are not so much who committed the crime, but how to see that justice is done. In this fascinating volume, Norval Morris, addresses some of the most perplexing and controversial questions of justice in an original and captivating fashion - using emotionally charged short stories to illuminate a series of contemporary moral problems.

The protagonist of these "parables of the law" - the mind through which the challenge of justice is presented - is Eric Blair, the birth name of George Orwell. What might seem, at first glance, a curious strategy - to present contemporary problems by building on the persona of a great political polemicist - prove to be a stroke of brilliance. Some things are best seen out of the corner of the eye; some problems taken head on prove insoluble; here parables of the past speak to the present as direct analysis never could. Set in Burma in the 1920s, these parables wrestle with a series of challenging issues: capital punishment, insanity and criminal responsiblility, child custody, the suicidal ex-lover, parental neglect of a child unto death, the "battered wife syndrome, " and heroin to treat terminal cancer, to name a few.

Written by one of America's foremost experts on crime and punishment, "The Brothel Boy" offers readers a deeper understanding of these poignant debates, and a profound respect for the intricacies of justice.