Originally published in 1956, this hallucinatory novel is set in the upper reaches of the Orinoco River in the Amazon basin. It's the tale "of little-known and rarely, if ever, photographed places," an expedition by a young urban ethnomusicologist to a remote world frozen in time. For those with an appreciation for demanding literature, this book is a much celebrated masterpiece. The "New Yorker" called its descriptions of the fictitious provincial city, forest and revolution-torn South America masterful.  (AMZ18, $17.50)