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Why These Tragedies Happen
The Suicide Council is a work of speculative fiction that draws on Émile Durkheim’s four categories of suicide and imagines a heavenly council assigned to review the lives of people who die by suicide. Where did the idea for this book come from?
I was a big fan of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. When I heard news of his death, I was deeply saddened, as a mediocre guitar player watching him on MTV’s unplugged play Bowie’s Man who sold the World”, I couldn’t believe someone that creative would want to end his life, from the outside he was the envy for every musician, ANd even though he did leave a note, he did not explain what happened that led him to this. The note was mostly asking for forgiveness. I just felt there has to be a way to find out why people end their life besides the all-knowing God. I wanted to tell a story about a way to find out what happened, even if it took a lifetime. I am no longer a true believer in faith anymore. But I wanted to believe God would consider why people end their lives and not automatically go to hell. The Suicide Council was the only way a suicide victim could plead their case to be redeemed for the victim.
The novel explores suicide through very different life stories rather than a single narrative. Why did you choose an interconnected case-by-case structure for the book?
I am sad to say these were the most common reasons that people currently understand why these tragedies happen. I wanted also to show there was a way to find out why this happened. If it gave anyone hope, I succeeded in getting my point across. Do I still want to know why Kurt Cobain killed himself? Yes, but I also want to believe you might not find out till after death.
Despite dealing with difficult subject matter, the book avoids sensationalism and instead emphasizes compassion and understanding. Was striking that balance one of your biggest challenges as a writer?
It was very difficult trying to not blame mental illness. I didn’t want to give Psychiatry a debate to prove what I got wrong or challenge my view of death. The other challenge was being as sensitive as possible to tell a story that happened to a friend of mine, who told me a story in confidence.
After readers finish The Suicide Council, what conversations do you hope they’ll have about mental health, compassion, and faith?
I don’t want people to forget their loved one but to move on with their life. I want people to spend their life looking for blame or what they missed or could have done more to help this person. There is an answer, and hopefully one day they will find out the reason.
The Suicide Council: Before God Decides
The Suicide Council: Before God Decides, by Victer Hugo Basurco, is a work of speculative theological fiction that imagines a heavenly council assigned to review the lives of people who die by suicide before God makes a final judgment. The book moves through a series of cases, each centered on a different person and a different kind of pain, while drawing on Émile Durkheim’s four categories of suicide. It is part spiritual drama, part social reflection, and part literary fiction, with each chapter asking the same difficult question from a new angle: what does a life look like when we see the whole story instead of only the final act?
Basurco isn’t interested in shock value, even though the subject matter is heavy. He keeps returning to the people behind the headlines, the rooms before the silence, the memories that pile up until someone can no longer carry them. Some chapters feel almost like case files, but the better moments are more intimate than that. A daughter reviewing her father’s life. A stranger discovering the weight of one small act of kindness. A family left to sort through grief that has no clean edges. Those scenes give the book its strongest emotional pull.
I also found myself thinking a lot about the author’s choice to frame these stories through a divine bureaucracy. That could have felt cold, but here it creates distance just long enough for the reader to keep looking. Miriam, Macarius, Muhyi, Cyprian, and Belial give the novel a structure that keeps it from becoming only a collection of tragedies. Belial’s presence adds tension, sometimes bluntly, while the heavenly representatives bring compassion and inquiry. Not every section lands with the same force, and at times I think the dialogue explains more than it needs to. Still, the book’s sincerity is hard to dismiss. It wants to understand rather than condemn.
I would recommend The Suicide Council to readers who appreciate reflective speculative fiction, faith-based literary fiction, and stories that wrestle openly with grief, judgment, mercy, and the unseen reasons people break. For readers willing to sit with painful material handled with compassion, this novel offers a thoughtful and searching experience. It feels less like a book trying to answer every question and more like one asking us to look longer before deciding what we think we know.
Pages: 125
Prepared to Face the Demon
Mercy is a fascinating supernatural account of one man’s struggle to overcome his family’s mistakes. What was the inspiration behind this engaging story?
I found it interesting that the Literary Titan reviewer discovered a layer to my story which I didn’t actively intend, but which in retrospect, is apparent to me as well. There is one particular chapter near the beginning of Mercy which addresses the “turmoil, sadness, sickness and death” which had inflicted Anthony’s extended family. The demon is initially attracted to the Napolitano family because of the love which is abundant throughout, but also because Anthony’s grandfather is essentially an evil person at heart, who was ripe for possession. So, in that respect, Anthony’s journey is an attempt to overcome the failings of his family and the tragedies to which they were subjected because of them. Believe it or not, the initial inspiration for the story of Mercy was the stone cross fragment which I saw and photographed outside a small shop in Woodstock, NY. It is the cover of the book. It started me on a game of “What if…?” which eventually became the story of Anthony and the demon and his cosmic connection to a 17th century woman.
Anthony is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some ideals that guided his character development?
The character of Anthony is based largely upon me and some of the experiences that I had as a child, as a young man, and, now, as an older man. But he is of course an idealized version of me. I’m not at all sure I would have had the courage and fortitude to deal with a demon for a good portion of my life! His feelings are largely my own, but his problems and solutions, of course, are not. When the central theme of the book eventually became clear to me, that “love reallydoes conquer all,” I needed to make sure that Anthony was not only prepared to face the demon, but equally prepared to face, embrace, and most of all be worthy of, the rare love which would one day come his way.
I enjoyed the unique take on angels and demons in this book. What were some themes you wanted to explore in your novel?
The primary theme here was tied into the questions, “What exactly is religion?” and “Who exactly is the being we call God?” I guess these questions arose from my own questions about, and struggles with, Catholicism and being raised in the “Italian-American version” of the Catholic Church. Shortly after Anthony meets his mentor/confessor Professor James Gilligan, a former divinity student, he asks him if he still believes in God. Gilligan’s answer to that question is the starting point to Anthony’s defensive posture against the demon.
What is the next story that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’m currently seven chapters into my next book, which is tentatively titled The Walrus, and is another supernatural mystery tale. The story is essentially an exploration into the possibility that something, or someone, could be inherently both good and evil. I’m hoping to have it available by the end of this year or early 2021.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Years have passed. The demon comes and goes, never staying away for long, never giving Anthony the normal life he craves. Now a student at Rutgers University, Anthony decides, finally, that enough is enough.
Under the guidance of celebrated academic and demonologist James Gilligan, Anthony begins to delve into the supernatural, eventually discovering among the old, dusty tomes, the story of one Mercedes Engle, a 17th Century Dutch colonist who, legend claimed, had been visited by the Archangel Raphael. Anthony can’t help but wonder: could Mercedes’ descendants still live in New York? Could they hold the key to defeating the demon once and for all?
Mercy is the thrilling, romantic, and sometimes comic tale of an Italian-American boy who, coming at last into adulthood, is forced to face his demons head-on—literally.
Mercy: The Devil is in the Details…
![Mercy: The Devil is in the Details... by [Alan J. Paul]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61HHeerJRkL.jpg)
Anthony’s life has never been what most would call normal. From an early age, his entire family was plagued by one tragedy after another. Anthony can’t escape what some might consider to be the family curse. When he is dared to enter a room otherwise off-limits to students at his military school, he again meets up with an old acquaintance–an entity vile in the most personally devastating ways. One after another, the demon lists his family’s shames leaving Anthony to fear what may follow. Once Anthony steps from the cursed room, will his life ever be the same? Will he look at his family in a new, more ominous light?
Mercy: The Devil is in the Details, by Alan J. Paul, follows Anthony Banna on a strange venture into the supernatural as he deals with the presence of a demon who seems hellbent on showing Anthony the error of his family’s ways. Anthony is introduced to the entity as a young boy and can’t seem to shake it. It’s almost poltergeist-like feel makes the demon all the more palpable and keeps readers on their toes.
The author has mastered the art of the backstory. Including a good bit of historical fiction/supernatural history, he has created a truly terrifying read. The notion that a possession can pass from generation to generation is as unsettling as it is fascinating. No matter where Anthony is, he faces the return of the demon–his fate seems sealed. His resolve to prepare himself and remain armed for the next encounter makes for a well-rounded character. It is interesting to watch Anthony research and gather an arsenal of information to combat what is coming his way.
The introduction of Professor Gilligan into Anthony’s life is a godsend for Anthony as well as the reader. It is through Gilligan we see how deeply disturbing the study of the occult can be. Gilligan’s own story adds a new layer to the plot and enhances Anthony’s own family tragedy all the more. There is something about a tragic character who draws strength from his adversity that draws me into a book. Both Anthony and Gilligan are these types of characters. As a team, they are unstoppable.
Readers who are interested in the religious aspect of angels and demons will find Paul’s work a fascinating supernatural read based on historical religious figures and tied neatly into an engaging fictional account of one man’s struggle to overcome his family’s mistakes. Paul’s main character is memorable and relatable and takes readers on quite the thrill ride through history and into his present day nightmare.
Pages: 213 | ASIN: B086JDH43C
