Three Poisons is a collection of three short stories "giving remarkably vivid and imaginative expression, in a contemporary setting" of the three hindrances to freedom: greed, ill-will and delusion. The setting is South Africa and, far from being bitter or nihilistic, the stories are shot through with an affection for humanity-its cultures and its frailties. It "bears testament to the subtlety of Pillay's understanding of philosophy, the slippery cleft between normality/madness and the complexity of ordinary lives in an extraordinary society." Nowhere does Kriben tell us what to think, but he sets us on a path to make our own enquiry-or just to enjoy three first-rate, truly original short stories.
