"As he dies, leaving his two boys orphans, Paulo's father charges him with the duty of looking after his slow-witted younger brother, for otherwise Daniel will be put away in an institution. But Paulo is unable to exert any authority over Daniel, who though 20 - is still in the throes of puberty and goes off in a fumbling, inept pursuit of the village girls. " "Among these girls are pretty Teresa and her plain friend, Carmen, a girl disfigured by a birthmark on one cheek. Teresa is the reluctant, indeed disgusted, object of Daniel's dreams, but both are sweet on Paulo, the quiet, irresolute but handsome lad who has inherited the family sawmill. Each girl schemes to win favour with Paulo. The narrators of this story, who take turns to continue the tale, are creatures of the wild driven by their inner voices - a bird, squirrels, a black snake... Delicately told, in the simplest language, this is an elegiac tale of lost innocence and the ruthlessness of the natural world, where the hunter all too soon becomes the prey. "--BOOK JACKET.