The First Mystery — Paul Smith

~THE FIRST MYSTERY~ A Novel of the Road… by Paul Smith THE FIRST MYSTERY is a novel that operates on a number of levels: it is a search, a tracking down of a murderer and a mystery as to who did it. It is a search through many mysterious lands, people and events. Travel Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Nepal, Tibet, Kashmir, India and San Francisco. It is a search (through dreams and visions) into the sub-conscious mind of the private detective Dave Jones, a cynical westerner, who seeks but is unaware of the true nature of his journey. It is also the story of the other main characters, Johnny Wilkulda an Australian aboriginal tracker, seeking a higher truth for himself and all others; and Robinson, the ‘LSD Professor', who has taken the road of mind-expanding drugs, the ‘fast road'. Meet Evie Rush, too beautiful to be a murderer? Meet Collins the murderous homicide detective; meet Arla, the beautiful jazz singer in big trouble in Bangkok; meet Margaret, haunted, looking for love in a rubber plantation in Malaysia; meet the Cambodian Prince in love with music, trying to stop war entering his country; meet Meera the Indian girl, stuck in a whorehouse in Laos and seeing visions of a new Messiah. Meet them and many other strange and fabulous, weird and wonderful characters in THE FIRST MYSTERY, a new kind of novel. 541 pages COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S VERSION OF HAFIZ'S ‘DIVAN'. “It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished. If he comes to Iran I will kiss the fingertips that wrote such a masterpiece inspired by the Creator of all.” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. “Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. “Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz.” Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of over 80 books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies and a dozen screenplays.