New York: Harper & Row, (1986) dj. Hardcover first edition - The tenth novel of magical realism by this Pakistani-American author, poet and essayist, a story of surrealistic fantasy, and of desires fulfilled and unfilled, set in an unnamed country resembling Brazil. "A humble civil servant working in an indifferent state bureaucracy, Felipe Gamboa never really makes sense of the bizarre series of events that lead him from a lunch break in the park one day into the hands of the military police and finally to the shores of a remote island where undreamed-of adventures in sensuality and metaphysics await him." 256 pp. ISBN: 0-060155752.