Francisco Aragsn extends the map of Latino poetry in this bilingual collection. Taking its title from the central plaza in Madrid, it chronicles an overseas journey both public and private. Life in the capital -- taking in jazz at a cafi after dark, navigating the underground landscapes of the Metro to and from work -- is interwoven with the more interior realms of loss in poems that mourn a parent, retrace the steps of a late mentor, or express the collective grief borne of terrorism. The work, in essence, inhabits a seldom explored bicultural space: for Aragsn the author is also Aragsn the translator, shaping with his own hand Spanish versions of all these poems, thereby embodying the years he shuttled between his native California and his adopted Spain. "Francisco Aragon's poetry has the clarity of the bright winter sky and the emotional force of high summer." -- Richard Rodriguez