TREASURES ON EARTH
In 1911, Hiram Bingham, a Yale professor, led a group of archeologists, geographers, and naturalists into the remote Andes of Peru-an expedition that resulted in the discovery of Machu Picchu. That expedition and the events surrounding it provide the backdrop for this remarkably rich and moving novel.
At the center is a young man named willie Hickler, a photographer and longtime friend of Hiram, who is along to record the group's exploits on film. While his co-workers are making scientific "finds," Willie makes a discovery that is at once more private and more awesome. Having until now denied his own deepest feelings, he is suddenly, deliriously, lifted up and out of his constricted life—every aspect of his being charged with a new vitality and wonder—by his love for Ernesto, Hiram's chief Peruvian assistant.