The General's Wife is an evocative, well-researched story of love, tragedy, and triumph in 19th-century Venezuela. In the 17th century, Spanish Jesuit priests established missions along the Orinoco and its tributaries at the southern border of Venezuela. The deep-forest Indians slipped away from these intruders far back into the trees. Later, Spanish miners combed the valleys for gold. Some of the disappointed men gave up their quest and settled down with Indian girls. Cha, the fruit of such a union, grew up by the river, ignorant of both his heritages. Soon, civil war broke out between the...