Set in and around a small town in modern-day Belize, Essence & Folly chronicles the lives of several poignant and comical residents from Santo Innocencio. A humorous ?shing story of revenge gone wrong entitled "Ole Gyal and Jackanapes" exposes some of the di?culties arising from the generation gap between a cantankerous Mayan grandmother and her "half-limey" grandson. "The Voice over the Water" recounts Doña Elena's days of interminable melancholy and loneliness following the death of her husband. Three months after her heartbreak, the widow ?nds herself at the edge of a cli?, confronting her own mortality. "Don Gabriel Loco" is a madman serving out the ?nal days of a twelve-year sentence for the botched execution of his ex-wife's lover. While in jail, he records the colorful details of that bloody evening in a diary. Eventually, through deliberations with God, Shakespeare, and Diablo, he arrives at the decision that he must ?nish what he started—in six seconds ? at—the moment he's released. Believing this is his best shot at a normal life, a lonely bachelor enlists the help of a mule to pursue the love and attention of his neighbor in "The Love Story of a Garbage Man." In "Leonid and the Mini-Commander," a shopkeeper wonders whether his obsessions and compulsions are the result of prompts from a mini-commander hiding in a bunker lodged inside his head.
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JORGE DAVID AWE grew up in San Ignacio, Belize, a small town of mixed African and Latino culture; his experiences there in?uenced this collection. He holds a degree in economics from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Currently he lives in Montreal with his wife of twenty-two years and two teenage daughters. In this, his ?rst short story collection, author Jorge Awe has crafted twelve portraits inspired by exceptional people.
