Blood Kin is a clever novel about a military coup told by the ex-president's barber, chef, and portraitist.This novel is not set in any particular country, time or place. The characters have no identifying physical characteristics. They don't have names. We simply know them as the ex-president's barber, chef, and portraitist; men who perform essential tasks and try not to see what's happening around them. Our three men are held captive in the ex-President's Summer Palace as a military Commander destroys the old regime. All three men start to provide their services for the Commander, just as they did for the President before the coup, but before long, they question the Commander's authority and things begin to unravel. The mysterious connections between these men and their lovers come to the surface; and we discover that nobody is as innocent as he or she seems. Each one of them is attempting to atone for or cover up acts of cruelty, whether personal or political. In the end, who will manage to resist the corruptive force of power and who will give in?