New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Haunting novel by this Nobel laureate, 'set in a South American seaport in the colonial era, a time of viceroys and bishops, enlightened men and Inquisitors, saints and lepers and pirates. Sierva Maria, only child of a decaying noble family, has been raised in the slaves' courtyard of her father's cobwebbed mansion' Translated by Edith Grossman. 147 pp.