JOSE Maria and Rosa are lovers, but it s a brutal love. At 25, Rosa is in awe of 40-year-old Jose Maria, or Maria as he likes to be called and accedes to his, sometimes, crude desires. It s a volatile, full-on relationship, as they make the best of their

JOSE Maria and Rosa are lovers, but it's a brutal love. At 25, Rosa is in awe of 40-year-old Jose Maria, or Maria as he likes to be called and accedes to his, sometimes, crude desires.

It's a volatile, full-on relationship, as they make the best of their lives at the bottom end of the social scale in economically straitened Buenos Aires.

But their lives are turned upside down when Maria murders his building site foreman after a petty row and "disappears". Rosa initially grieves for her lost love, whose disappearance puzzles her.

As time goes on she begins to get on with her life, making new friends and lovers. She is not to know that Maria is holed up in the attic of the luxury mansion in which she works as maid and has been watching her every move - and that of the family living there. Gradually he reveals himself to Rosa, but we know there can only be one ending to this tragic tale.

Rage, by Sergio Bizzio (�7.99, Bitter Lemon), is a bleak, graphic novel but grips with every turn of the page. It has a Camus feel to the prose, with the short, sharp dialogue maintaining the tense atmosphere.

Soon to be made into a film by Guillermo del Toro, it will make for gripping, if uncomfortable viewing and is sure to make a name for Bizzio.

- CHRIS CARTER