Seventeen stories gallop, frolic, and slither across the pages of this collection. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes fatalistic, but always lyrical and thought-provoking, Domecq examines the human condition from a unique viewpoint. A pet canary is caught between her nesting instinct and her desire for solitude. A jaguar is guardian spirit to a middle-aged woman. And in the title story, a young girl is transformed during recess into a wild stallion. These and other tales, told with irony, wit, and compassion, keep the reader on the bittersweet edge between tragedy and comedy. Kay Garcia's free-flowing translation makes the reader forget that the narrative was not originally written in English.