Two travelers from different corners of the world discover that they have more in common than meets the eye in Samartin's smart second novel (after Broken Paradise
). Shunned by her small Mexican village for a birthmark (it covers her back and legs) considered to be the work of the devil, Jamilet Juárez sneaks across the border to live with her aunt in Los Angeles, where she plans on saving up enough money to pay for the birthmark's removal. Once in L.A., Jamilet scores illegal papers and takes a job in a mental hospital supervising the cunning and cantankerous Señor Peregrino, who, in short order, snatches Jamilet's forged papers and ransoms them. The price: she has to listen to his stories. As the old man reminisces about his adventurous pilgrimage to the landmark Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Jamilet tries to forge a life independent of the mark that once defined her. Samartin is at her best when it comes to matters of the heart, portraying the anguish of lost love and the thrill of a young woman's first crush with the same dexterity. A few story elements are left dangling, and the ending is abrupt for such an ambitiously assembled tale, but Samartin's rich storytelling overpowers the faults. (Mar.)
