The year is 1946 and World War II has ended. But, in the aftermath, a deadly remnant of the war's hostilities--a stray mine--has washed ashore from the Pacific on a remote desolate beach in Mexico. In this intense story, the mine, by odd happenstance, becomes a catalyst that touches the lives of Manuel Salgado, a good Mexican cop, Robert Campbell, an American drifter who has been operating a boat illegally in Mexican waters, two escaped convicts and a young woman who was believed to have died in a car crash. It all climaxes in a twist of irony.

Offers readers anecdotes, stories, quizzes and a host of insights into what makes books what they are - those wonderful and magical sources of great thoughts. This book presents a compendium of the literal back pages of Booklist, a column that has been published in the magazine since 1991.