New York. 1986. July 1986. Harper & Row. 1st American Edition. Very Good in

New York. 1986. July 1986. Harper & Row. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0060155752. 256 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Bascove. keywords: Europe England Literature Pakistan World Literature. DESCRIPTION-What happens when an accident of chance deflects the course of an ordinary man's life from its prosaic path into a fantastic world where time barely exists and dream and reality are indistinguishable? 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 in his unnamed South American country and finally to the shores of a remote island where undreamed-of adventures in sensuality and metaphysics await him. At the same time, his daughter's boyfriend, Federico, stumbles blindly from the cock-fighting den where he has been fleeced of his father's money into the magical shop of corrupt old Popayan, only to emerge with an amulet which sends him off to a seemingly fabulous destiny. Gamboa and Federico meet up again sixteen years later on that remote Pacific island in a brilliant twist of an ending to a haunting story of desires fulfilled and unfulfilled. An accomplished novelist, poet, and critic, Zulfikar Ghose skillfully blends a gift for storytelling reminiscent of Garcia Márquez and Jorge Amado with a sure sense of surrealist fantasy in this original, wildly imaginative, brilliantly plotted, and utterly absorbing novel. ‘A richly poetic novel. the author juggles dreams and destinies like a master. '-Christopher Wordsworth, The Guardian. inventory #28766.