In the tradition of such great Latin American magic realists as Jorge Amada, Sergio Kokis recreates the magic world of a child in Brazil.

The novel is told from the point of view of a Brazilian painter in exile somewhere in the northern climes - man who longs for the warmth and vibrancy of his childhood.

But his childhood and adolescence were not easy. Torn between a deeply religious (and superstitious) mother and his father, a man of science and reason, the young man survives his home life, life at boarding school, and life abroad to become an artist and a person in his own...