A universal portrait and an insider's look at life in Latin America, their cause for happiness, however, triggers a series of events that marks the lives of everyone in the small village of Santiago, Mexico. Woven into Chayo's and Candelario's story are an unforgettable array of characters: Marta, the hotel maid who reads cast-off American magazines and dreams of El Paso; don Justo, the heartbroken fortune-teller; Esperanza, the midwife who finds new love with Rafael, the shy schoolteacher. Their secret dreams and desires are known only to the omniscient sea and to the curandera Remedios, a healer who hears them all. Winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction and Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award!
