New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990. dj. Hardcover first edition - Highly praised first novel by this writer who was born in Spain and raised in Chile. Nominated for the National Book Award. Told from the point of view of a 10 year old girl, reviewers compared this satiric novel to both 'Huckeberry Finn' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and authors were equally unrestrained in their comments - with Robert Stone calling the best novel he had read all year and Paul West describing it as the 'most ebullient first novel I've read in years.'. ISBN: 1-55584-2798.