An atheist shaman (as he is) might seem like a contradiction in terms, but in fact it gives him the ability to play with the language and images of different religious beliefs, until he finds the one which resonates with his 'patient'. So, it's a crazy story, told by the (rather susceptible) journalist, but leavened by the staunch rationalism of the bookseller/shaman, who starts the book with a long discussion of how the supernatural - ghosts, curses and spirits - 'exist, but are not real' - that is, people believe in them and therefore they have an impact on people's behaviour, despite the fact that they are total fiction. The friend warns him off from publishing, but also becomes interested in the story, and in the end, joined by a private detective with a sort of second sight and the bookseller's equally clever sister, they are drawn into trying to 'solve' the mysteries. Freaked out by the stories but seeing a publication opportunity, he goes to talk it over with his smartest friend, a secondhand bookseller who is also a shaman. A journalist picks up some rumours of strange goings-on at a medical clinic - a man has vanished from inside a locked room, his wife has been pregnant for 20 months, there are dark hints of Nazi experimentation and stolen babies.
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