The jacket blurb boasts that the novel is “teeming with magical realism” leaving aside the question of whether magical realism can actually teem, this story, Allende’s ( Portrait in Sepia, 2001, etc.) first for children, does anything but. Alex and Nadia are rechristened for their totem animals (Jaguar and Eagle) and go on perilous spirit quests. The Beasts, it turns out, are gigantic sloths-leftovers from some prehistoric era that have by dint of their exceptionally slow metabolism and consequently long lives developed some intelligence and even rudimentary language. There they encounter the People of the Mist, a-surprise, surprise-pristine indigenous civilization, who have evolved a symbiotic relationship with their gods, the Beasts. After the requisite agonizing trip up the longest river in the world, Alex and Nadia are finally ushered by an ancient shaman into the Eye of the World. Predictably enough, the expedition team consists of a variety of types, including a beautiful doctor, a dashing guide and his mystical daughter Nadia, an egotistical anthropologist, a sinister Indian aide, and a number of expendable supernumeraries. Alex’s mother’s struggle with cancer has forced him into the care of his grandmother, a writer for International Geographic magazine, which has mounted an expedition into the heart of the rainforest to observe the strange monsters known only as the Beasts.

OL20922630W Page_number_confidence 96.43 Pages 422 Partner Innodata Pdf_module_version 0.0.15 Ppi 360 Rcs_key 24143 Republisher_date 20210714123314 Republisher_operator Republisher_time 658 Scandate 20210714013302 Scanner Scanningcenter cebu Scribe3_search_catalog isbn Scribe3_search_id 9780007146376 Tts_version 4.A moody American teen finds himself up the Amazon without a paddle in this aimlessly meandering and cliché-ridden fantasy.

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 10:01:43 Associated-names Peden, Margaret Sayers Boxid IA40171520 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

City of the beasts by isabel allende