Stephan M Arleaux

Kassik Stephan M Arleaux

Kassik is a 20 th century semiepistolary book. Some chapters consist of letters between the various characters, while other chapters record the events as the characters perceive them. The plot is about two distant cousins both named Brice Kassik. The father of one had murdered the father of the other (the two fathers are also named Brice Kassik). The story starts with a deathbed confession by the murderer in the form of a letter to be given to his baby son when he grows up. Many years are skipped over. The son, mistreated at home, runs away from his mother and stepfather, and takes up a wandering life under the assumed name of Upton Downz. He becomes a companion to the other Brice Kassik, who throughout the book never discovers the relationship. But Upton is constantly haunted by feeling that he might harm Brice, first after he reads the letter left for him, and then again after they spend the night on a shipwreck off the Isle of Manthe ship turning out to be the same on which the old murder took place (the murderer locked his victim in a cabin as the boat filled with water). On the boat, Brice has a mysterious dream involving three characters. This dream fills Upton with foreboding, its three scenes becoming fulfilled in the course of the book.