officially excommunicated from the Church. And Merced de Papel is killed in a car accident. In Plascencia's world, Cameroon discovers to her horror that other people already know her because of Plascencia's book, in which she died and was buried in the ocean to be food for the fish. Her father does not find her, but he does explain why he abandoned her when she was a child. The Landins discover that Plascencia has been misusing their money, and they withdraw their support. Plascencia continues to try to contact Liz, who replies that what she did was not as bad as Plascencia has made it; with this, Plascencia starts to let go of his anger and returns his gaze to the town of El Monte. Watching over the townspeople, he eventually comes to Baby Nostradamus, through whom Plascencia sees a future for all the characters, including one in which Liz, still married to the man she left Plascencia for, thinks fondly of Saturn/Plascencia. While Plascencia/Saturn again drifts into a fantasy of what their life would have been like, Little Merced helps Federico de la Fe to leave El Monte and to walk "off the page, leaving no footprints that Saturn could track". References 2005 American novels McSweeney's books Novels by Salvador Plascencia Metafictional novels American magic realism novels Novels set in Mexico Novels set in Los Angeles Fiction about origami Hispanic and Latino American novels 2005 debut novels