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Prologue

• The Prologue opens with the couple Ignacio and Blanca Aguero riding on horseback through the Zapatos Swamp in search of a specimen of ruddy duck for a museum collection in Boston.

• Blanca is excited to see a rare bee hummingbird, but when she turns to tell her husband, she sees that he is pointing his gun directly in her face. He fires.

• As son as it is dark, Ignacio carries Blanca's body to the nearest town and begins to tell his lies.

Part 1, Acts of God

• The novel opens in 1990 in the city of El Cobre focusing on Reina Aguero, who is nearly 50-years-old and still stunning.

• Reina works as an electrician and also suffers from insomnia. Her lover, a 25-year-old, thinks the insomnia comes from her vast collection of books that have been in the apartment for over 40 years.

• Reina remembers how her father also suffered...

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