Eami

The Asojá the bird-god-woman of Ayoreo culture, who can transmute her spirit—flies, bringing with her memories of the past, present and future. She was a tiger; she was a plant; she was a jaguar: today, she is Eami, a five-year-old girl whose name means forest and world. She has lost her own kind a people displaced from their shrinking forest home. They have become coñone an Ayoreo word that translates as “insensate,” the term they use to refer to those outside their culture. In a trance, Eami hears the voices of her grandparents and is joined by a lizard, who guides her. He knows she must leave the forest. She must leave everything behind, so she will not die there.