Andrea Carter

Hard Bed Hotel Andrea Carter

An earthquake shakes up the lives of a lonely cemetery caretaker and a washed up Latino Rockstar to lead us down the humorous paths of Santiago de Chile's General Cemetery, where, as it turns out, nothing is as it seems.

Astrid de las Nieves, of all people, should know better. How can a cemetery caretaker mistake the very much alive Jhonny Pretty, for a ghost? Well, the story goes way back. And no matter because, ghost or no ghost, Jhonny Pretty is just what she's always dreamed of... and more.

As for Jhonny, well - for years he's been reduced to singing for pennies in the poor man's district of Slaughterhouse Square. After the quake renders him indigent he decides to set up digs at the family mausoleum, where he meets with Astrid's increasing infatuation. All he has to do is sing a few bars from his familiar oldies and she's eating out of his hand.

Perspective is skewed through the lens of desire, and happiness is a question of perspective. The thin line between the living and the dead is blurred and nothing is as it seems - rockstar is ghostly indigent, pickpocket is tourism executive, shop owner is purveyor of saints, con artist is plastic surgeon and meddling ghost is guardian angel.

Everything goes wrong but maybe it's right, as heaven and earth settle into an unexpected juxtaposition in this twisted Latin tale that is doused with humor and magic realism.