Venezuela to Italy, villages to prisons, forests to whore houses are the backdrops to these short stories which reflect the people and the places that have informed this wonderful writer's work. Antonio Mezzano in Umbria, the blind man who gathers village gossip in his one good hand; La Rusa who runs her Rainbow brothel in the Andes; Eladio 'the mad man' who searches with his mute son for the eagle they stubbornly believe will restore them to health; Otto, the political prisoner called Proff who shares his cell with a killer; tiny Silvio the poet on Buona Vita Street; Nanzia, the family cook whose heart was chopped like parsley on marble when love came her way. In many senses, these are the dispossessed but through these compassionate and vivid tales, we see them anew - prostitutes, peasants, shopkeepers, mothers among them - with a will to survive that has given them grace and humour. Once again, Lisa St Aubin de Terán's writing casts a spell and a mood that leave the reader in no doubt of her intimate knowledge and love for the countries she has called home.