This splendid collection of stories by 26 Latin American authors features the new voices and celebrate masters of one of the world's foremost literatures. Explore the gothic sexual ambiguitites of Carlos Fuentes' "The Doll Queen," the psychological compression of Clarice Lispector's "Love," or the baroque pyrotechnics of Machado de Assis and Adolfo Bioy Casares. Discover the paradically "hard-boiled" detectice fiction of Ana Lydia Vega and some decidedly "soft-boiled" criminals in Rubem Fonseca's "Lonelyhearts." From erotic comedies by Isabel Allende and Jorge Amado to the playful labyrinths of Guillermo Cabrera Infante's London streets or Armonia Somers' roomful of elocks. A Hammock Beneath the Mangoes reveals the virtuosity of Latin American literature at its finest, and provides an illuminaing journey into dreamlike and unexpected worlds.