Vintage, Toronto, 2001, 1^st pr thus.  ISBN 0-676-97287-X.  Trade soft cover, 376 pages including Acknowledgments, Annotated Bibliography and Index.  Unread copy, remainder mark on bottom edge, light edge and cover wear.  ‘Chile’s Atacama Desert is the driest place on earth, ...  As Lake Sagaris journeys from modern-day Santiago northward into the Atacama, she interweaves the story of the Incan priestess La Tirana.  In the 16^th century, La Tirana fled into the Atacama to create her own community, in fierce resistance to Spanish invaders.  …  While searching for La Tirana, Sagaris portrays the Atacam:  beautiful, mysterious, a world as harsh and strange as the moon.  … is Sagaris’s magnificent tribute to all those who have ventured here and melded their hopes to its surface of rock and bone.’ (from rear flap)