Fiction. Literature. HTML:A universal portrait and an insider's look at life in Latin America in this "vivid, graceful, tautly constructed" novel of love, anger, hope, and tragedy (Tim O'Brien).

At the heart of this "profound . . . quietly stunning work that leaves soft tracks in the heart" is Chayo, the flower-seller, and her husband Candelario, the salad-maker, who finally may be blessed with the child they thought they would never have (The Washington Post Book World). Their cause for happiness, however, triggers a series of events that marks the lives of everyone in the small village of Santiago, Mexico.

Woven into Chayo's and Candelario's story are an unforgettable array of characters: Marta, the hotel maid who reads cast-off American magazines and dreams of El Paso; don Justo, the heartbroken fortune-teller; Esperanza, the midwife who finds new love with Rafael, the shy schoolteacher. Their secret dreams and desires are known only to the omniscient sea and to the curandera Remedios, a healer who hears them all.

Winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.