First published 1987
Lord Short Shoe, a calypso singer, teams up with a seductive black performer to con an American tourist out of his pet monkey. Nearby, a hotel owner battles island bureaucrats who refuse to let him bury his dead mother, forcing him into an extraordinary burial solution. Two impoverished locals crash an upscale dance party and get swept into violent chaos that threatens to spark revolution. A young woman follows her lover to the tropical islands, expecting romantic bliss, but discovers that even paradise becomes another place to abandon. These characters move through a Caribbean world that stretches from tiny fishing atolls absent from any map to Miami's crowded barrios and luxury marinas. Each story pulses with Caribbean rhythms as people chase dreams of paradise only to find themselves trapped between desire and reality. The islands promise escape but deliver the same human struggles found anywhere else.
Genres: fiction, adventure, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, lyrical
Tropes: con-artists, fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Caribbean, Miami
Audio Cassette · Amer Audio Prose Library Inc