An archaeologist from the East, a former art dealer and pot thief, the spirit of the Parrot Trainer trapped in an ancient bowl, a renegade Indian and a French social theorist and the team filming him all clash with each other and provoke the locals during an unexpectedly dangerous trip in New Mexico. Tweaking knee-jerk political correctness and academia, Wolfe sets his novel against a rich archaeological and anthropological background, and deals with some of the fields' most controversial issues. Witty, sexy and rife with local colour, this novel of ideas has magic realism and a tender love story at its core.