1 bestseller, Segal's book became the top selling work of fiction for all of 1970 in the United States, and was translated into more than 20 languages worldwide.

Lafourcade's marriage with Maria Luisa Señoret had ended three years earlier, and he reportedly wrote the novel inspired by his later pareja, about whom he remained quite secretive.

A film based on the novel was made in 1973 by Raúl Ruiz, which was at one time believed lost forever, but a print was later found in the vaults of ChileFilms.

The story is of a working class naive teenage girl (María = Palomita) who meets a posh boy (Juan Carlos) in the Piedra Roja music festival.

The political tension that would later culminate in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état is brilliantly observed and described by writer Lafourcade.

1984: —First special edition: Colección "Los Grandes de la Literatura Chilena", Editorial Zig-Zag.

—Special Edition on the occasion of the showing the film made decades earlier by Raúl Ruiz: Ediciones del Paraíso Perdido.