The Little Red Chairs

 Edna O'Brian wrote The Little Red Chairs. This novel starts out in Ireland in a small village. A new man comes to town advertising his services as a healer. His name is Vlad and he gives massages and herbal remedies. One woman in town becomes enamored with him. Later he is discovered to be a war criminal. The character in the book is based on a real war criminal currently in prison in Britain by the name of Radovan Karadzic. The title comes from a war memorial in Bosnia with little red chairs symbolizing the children who were killed in the war. The book was okay. I liked the imagery of the little red chairs. What I didn't like was a scene of gratuitous violence toward a woman that I felt was completely unnecessary.