Dusty River Flow

About the Book

     One hundred years earlier, Rome experienced a severe drought.  The disenchanted Pope lay dying.  He briefly thought of his illegitimate child and expressed his regret for not having seen the church at San Ignacio.  A cardinal noticed a large mole below the dying Pope’s navel.

     A hundred years later, in the town of San Ignacio, another severe drought was advancing.  It cut the town off from the rest of the world.  The mayor decided to become oblivious of the calamity.  He buried himself in erotic novels and continued to indulge in his pathological passion for mayonnaise.  The priest regretted that he was no longer able to travel to the brothel to “seminally” carry out his “mercy mission”.

     After having contracted syphilis, Father Gabriel was sent to take up the post in San Ignacio in order to avoid scandal.  He was expected to die soon; but the local doctor cured him of his ailment by applying magic.

     Because of the mounting dead from the drought, a burial solution was sought for, urgently.  The mayor was forced into action after a corpse had been propelled into his courtyard.  He ordered the undertaker to come up with an answer.  The undertaker began to cremate the dead on burning funeral boats floating down the river.

     The priest sought solace in a woman who noticed the large mole below his navel.  When the woman found that she was pregnant, she forcefully married the pharmacist. 

    The priest’s love-child then left town, only to return years later to reveal it all.      Not even the priest himself knew that he was the Pope re-incarnated, fulfilling a wish that had died with him a century earlier.  But they all knew that he had fathered the pharmacist’s child. The priest’s love-child has a large mole below his navel.

About the Author

     Born in the winter of 1963 in southern China, he grew up in the tumult of Cultural Revolution.  After finishing high school, he went to the U.K. in the early 1980s to commence his university career.  He was awarded the degree of Master of Philosophy in 1990 by the University of Wales before embarking upon his insatiable travels to four corners of the world.  He soon discovered his passion in Latin America and it is there he is still to be found a lot of the time.

     This book is the result of his repeated visits to the remote communities of Colombia and Venezuela over a period of six years.  He has also written several short stories set in Colombia.