This raucous portrayal of political and religious tyranny in the Dominican Republic won its author that country's National Prize Novel Award (which Senci¢n was then not permitted to accept). Its moving account of the experiences of three young seminarians whose lives are circumscribed by a volatile and dangerous church and country exfoliates skillfully to reveal a wide social panorama composed of sharply drawn individuals, and also makes ingenious (and often hilarious) connections between sexual potency and the urge toward freedom. It's a very accomplished novel.