"Although fragile in the face of human cruelty, the characters find an outstretched hand with the promise of being a refuge for the other. In Tokyo, 1971, Master Yoshikawa bleeds to death on the floor of his mansion. In Vladivostok, 1938, Ekaterina Nikolayeva, accused of treason against the Fatherland, awaits her trial and punishment. Also in Vladivostok, but in 2019, Takumi receives an emergency call from his native country: his sister was found almost dead in a ravine in the State of Mexico and he decides to return home. Three lives intertwined by a book that travels through the years and the unease running through each of the characters, but which is, in the end, several love stories. The Banality of Cruel Men is a moving novel about the imminent loneliness experienced by the characters in the face of their tragedies; they are as vulnerable as the people they love. Loss and melancholy are the mist into which they enter and the only possibility of a revealing catharsis."--