Maro and Inez one day find a couple of townspeople digging a big hole in front of their father's store, and that signals the beginning of the gold rush for their small Brazilian town. They watch their world crumble around them, not only literally (from all of the holes people continue to dig everywhere), but also socially, politically, mentally, and emotionally.
Hm, yeah. I didn't cotton to this one, really. The black humor seems so depressing for a YA book, and in fact the only thing about this story that seems to mark it as such is the age of the two main characters. In general it has too much of a despondency about it for me, even though the ending brings things back to a 'happier' state. ( )