It is Kingsolver's sixth novel, and won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction[1] and the Library of Virginia Literary Award.

However he is investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and after he is vilified by the press he returns to Mexico, taking his secretary, Violet Brown, with him.

However Brown, the chief beneficiary of his will, later receives a letter from Kahlo hinting that he has survived, by swimming underwater along a lava tube which emerges inland in a cenote.

He had instructed Brown to burn his diaries and letterspapers, but she secretly saves them and it is these papers that form the bulk of the novel.

[10] On September/October 2010 issue of Bookmarks, the book received a (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a summary saying, "However, the novel's compelling, engrossing story certainly outweighed these minor complaints, and in the end, Kingsolver has created a convincing "tableau vivant of epochs and people that time has transformed almost past recognition" (New York Times Book Review)".