"Allende is one of the most important novelists to emerge from Latin America in the past decade."--Boston Globe

An enthralling tale of one man's search for love and his struggle to contend with the pain and deprivation that shaped him.

Born in the Hispanic barrio of Los Angeles, Gregory Reeves grew up in poverty, survived the killing fields of Vietnam, and is now a lawyer in San Francisco. Though he has successfully survived this hard journey, Gregory's life has suddenly gone off the rails thanks to an illusory and wrongheaded quest that has left him feeling lost and listless. To find what he is missing and what his heart truly wants, he must return to his roots. Only by excavating the past can he see the way to his future.