First published 1998
Danny and Beatrice are siblings living in South America when the solar eclipse of 1919 transforms their relationship into something forbidden and passionate. Their affair produces Sonny, a strange and beautiful child who grows up isolated and marked by his origins. The family encounters Father Napier, a sandy-haired evangelist whom the local Indians see as a giant grasshopper, and Chofy McKinnon, a modern Indian caught between traditional savanna life and the pull of the urban world. Love repeatedly collides with disaster across the South American landscape, from dense forests to bustling cities. Nearly a century unfolds through these interconnected lives, where laughter sits close to tragedy and magic pushes against rational thought. Nature refuses to bow to culture, and love proves eternally rebellious against social boundaries. The story weaves together themes of racial mixing and identity while characters navigate between indigenous traditions and modern pressures.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, magical-realism, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: forbidden-love, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: South America
Period: 1919
368 pages · Hardcover · Bloomsbury USA
Content warnings: incest