PICARO

A distinct advance over anything the author has done before (Release the Lions, etc), and should widen his market, for it is a good job with a distinctive subject and a racy, colorful background. Tomas, guttersnipe of Barcelona, emigre to Buenos Aires, makes a fortune, and -- with a turn of the wheel -- loses it and finds himself again a beggar in Barcelona. But between times, he has lived life fully, and loved deeply, and given to those he has loved.