An encounter experienced over two decades before in the jungles of Peru would serve as the foundation for Joan Abelove's first work of fiction. The author of Go and Come Back, an award-winning novel about a young Isabo woman whose village becomes the home for two American anthropology students, Abelove herself spent two years in the Amazon jungle in the 1970s while doing her doctoral research in cultural anthropology. Hailing the debut work of fiction as being "Full of life and packed with characters that by turns irritate and enlighten," Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper deemed Go and Come Back "a startling, vibrant read." Abelove would follow the success of Go and Come Back with 1999's Saying It Out Loud, a book that also draws heavily upon the author's own experiences.

Raised in upstate New York, Abelove enjoyed reading as a child, and her first efforts at writing came...