Conceived the night of Che Guevara's burial in 1967, Gabriel McKenzie is inextricably bound up in the history and politics of his native Chile. Twenty-four years on, and still a virgin, Gabriel returns from Manhattan exile to confront his legacy: a Don Juan father and a country preparing for the 500th anniversary of America's "discovery". Into Gabriel's quest for manhood and identity enter one iceberg, a faithful if eccentric nanny and a whole host of fantastical characters. Rabelaisian, picaresque and erotic, this is a tour de force from one of Latin America's foremost writers.