Cursed by her over-sized feet and an extraordinary sense of smell -- which makes her a world-class Ecological Malodor Detector -- perplexed by the disappearance of her beloved Tío Ramon, confused by her upbringing in Ohio as an immigrant from a little known Caribbean island called Quichemala, Anabela Quintal returns to her birthplace to confront her failures. There, with her best friend, a renowned Santa Fe psychic, she finds a magic world, sadly polluted by the realities of nuclear production, waste cleanup and global capitalism. Here Time and the Fate of the Earth hang in the balance, dependent for salvation on the supernatural powers of a short shaman, Pirates of Chaos, eco-feminists, mobs of moths and the Smoking Mirror, a guerrilla group led by an anthropology professor with a feline alter ego, as well as a biology professor who believes that water hyacinths are the key to cleaning the environment.
In Quichemala, Time is circular and sacred, but in El Norte, Time is disastrously linear and human evolution has bogged down thanks to greedy corporate shenanigans and political sleaze. The island has nearly reached the Moment of the Haab, when the era is supposed to end and the Calendar change to 2012.
But will the Haab happen? Will Quichemala endure the onslaught of nuclear waste dumping, a dictator's corruption, a Corporado without conscience, a French nuclear-test stopover, the Magenta Diamond, evil twins and wicked triplets, a snoozing populace, plutonium smugglers, the lack of mangoes, an otherworldly basketball game and the renegade Serpent of Time? Will the people of Quichemala survive the crisis to reach 2012, when human domination of the Earth will at last be over?
And through it all, will Anabela Quintal find her True Face, her Second Heart, her Right Work, and the Meaning of Pink?
