<p>If you like martial arts movies, you're going to love this book!</p> <p>YMAA Publication Center has chosen author Arthur Rosenfeld's The Cutting Season to introduce a new literary fiction category: Martial Arts Fiction. The Cutting Season transplants this ancient, hugely popular, and authentic literary category to an American setting. Along with a thrilling story, The Cutting Season also conveys insights into genuine martial techniques and philosophies.</p> <p>Dr. Xenon Pearl cuts brains for a living, and he's as good as it gets. His direct, sometimes abrasive style is forgivable in light of his skill with a scalpel, and tempered by his compassion for his patients and his friends. He is a dutiful son to his widower father, a doting grandchild to a grandfather who was once a rabbi, and he has even met the girl of his dreams. Everything is on-track for this medical golden boy.</p> <p>The other side of this motorcycle riding, brilliant doctor façade is a side that Xenon (aka Zee) hides even from his father. Secretly trained since childhood by his Chinese nanny, Wu, Tie Mei--herself a martial warrior of shadowy lineage--Dr. Xenon Pearl is also a martial arts expert who loves the sword as much as the scalpel. </p> <p>Now his past is showing up to literally haunt him. His dead teacher reappears, reminding him that he has lived many lives before…</p> <ul> I relived the foul stench of city cisterns, the rotting of corpses in the desert, the intoxicating smell of night-blooming jasmine, the musky odor of my own clothes after battle, the ripe and heady aroma of a wife waiting months for my return. My fingertips bore witness to the paper-thin delicacy of azaleas, and the smooth hands of children. My hands recalled weapons I have no name for, spiked ropes and strange maces with bumps and edges like some crazy fruit. I remember the gossamer threads of an industrious spider touching my eye. I remembered feeling holes where once I had teeth. </ul> <p>In this life, Dr. Xenon Pearl must use his skill – to defend the innocent, defeat the Russian mob, protect the woman who loves him, and stay one step ahead of a smart cop; he is set to lose everything unless he can cut just one more time.</p> <p>"It's essential that you remember your previous lives," she said. "Without that memory, you're doomed to repeat your lessons."</p> <p>"You are a fearsome warrior no matter what skin you wear, no matter the shape of your eyes; it's time to give up the scalpel and pick up your sword."</p> <p>"I'm a doctor." I said. "And the way things look now, I'm a schizophrenic doctor."</p> <p>"Your visions always come true." She said. "You are going to cut the man who burned his wife."</p> <p>"I'm telling you to cut him now!"</p> <p>In the spirit of martial arts tradition, The Cutting Season brings the traditional Asian martial arts novel to our shores, exploring human conflict, desires, and the search for moral certainties.</p> <p>Do no harm... Honor your teacher... Cut without mercy...</p> Read Less