Body and Soul
After fleeing to Paris to escape communist rule, Polish émigré and piano player Jerzy Wozzeck finds it nearly impossible to support his family on his low-paying bistro gigs. So when a friend offers a fat payoff for handling a string of deliveries, Jerzy quickly finds himself in the uneasy employ of an anonymous suit and his sensual assistant. With a couple of flawless jobs under his belt, Jerzy starts living the good life—until, on one such run, he stumbles across a corpse and realizes his benefactors will go to any lengths to protect their operations.
To ensure his loyalty, Jerzy’s patrons ply him with every possible temptation, from the purest drugs to the most willing women—and he begins selling his soul piece by piece to maintain his illusion of prosperity. But when rival crime lords and hit men enter the fray, Jerzy plots to escape his boss’s dirty dealings—only to discover he’s in too deep to get out alive.
“Smith creates a clever suspense yarn with a comic edge. But the fun is spread thin enough to see clearly what lies beneath: the bitter reckonings and hard realities of an émigré’s struggle to succeed.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Both chilling and funny, the story of an unlucky man in an existential horror show who blunders through with the charm of the Little Tramp. In all, ambitious, intelligent, and quite compelling.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Originally published by Grove Press in 1987.
