The Cycle of Ramón & Other Stories from the Cantina

This is a collection of magic realism stories, and you've stumbled upon a treasure chest. 

In the title story, sometimes letting go just isn't possible. You've loved the same soul down through the ages, but just before you can be together forever, he is ripped away yet again. Will the eerily weeping heavens combine with the sea and a departed love to ease the burden of the one who has been left behind? 

In "Carmen, Whose Face Was Cracked, the kindest and most beautiful woman in all of Mexico suffers a cracked face, and it has nothing to do with vanity. 

In "The Rabbit & the Priest," drought has ravaged crops, killed livestock, and left the villagers hungry. What can one rabbit do to help? 

In "The Dawn of Rigoberto," an orphan grows to be the tallest, strongest, wisest and kindest man in the fishing village of Agua Rocosa. His mother wandered off within weeks of his birth & is rumored to be a witch, but has gained goddess status with many of the villagers. Will he find her? And if so, how will he and she benefit? 

And the oldest of these stories, "The Storyteller," is another collection in its own right. Juan-Carlos Salazár, the Keeper of the Tales and an excellent bartender in a cantina, relates stories to keep his customers entertained. The stories are of the magic that permeates that area where reality folds into imagination. In those stories within a story, 

• A wind has lost its way among the rocks on the hillside. 
• Clouds are so overcome with grief and sorrow that they overpower the sun and take vengeance on the village. 
• Raindrops are so large they force birds to take cover or walk.
• And heat so severe that the only boarding house in the village spontaneously combusts and burns to the ground, leaving no sign that it ever existed. 

Magic is in the air! If you've enjoyed the works of Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende, you'll enjoy these Stories from the Cantina.