A luminous fish appears in an impoverished village like a sign from God and proceeds to perform questionable miracles on its foolish, desperate citizens. A guitar-strumming rhymester triumphs over her male opponents in the competitive folk art of the repente only to find herself ensnared in a romantic trap of her own making. A handsome, sexually conflicted priest must confron the uneasy space between spiritual rapture and the aching pleasures of the flesh. A young Brazilian girl enamored of American television shows discovers that the United States is much more complex and frustrating than a cartoon. Welcome to the rich, textured worl of the Sertao, teeming with scheming camilies, conniving politicians, magical creatures, loyal and disloyal friends. Luana Monteiro plumbs the mysteries of enduring love, sudden shifts of fate, unknowable forces churning just beyond our ability to grasp. Little Star of Bela Lua announces the debut of a whimsical yet wise writer whose lyric gifts and