The 12 trans-realist prose sketches in Christmas At The FourCorners of The Earth take the reader to Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia,Rotterdam, China, New Mexico, New Zealand, the Ardennes Forest, and the southAtlantic ocean. We meet a one-armed man playing the piano in a small bungalowunder the Southern Cross, a Countess who survives the sinking of atransatlantic steamer and artists who drink and sing through Christmas Eve andday. These sketches - working together - are antitheses to traditional andperhaps sentimental Christmas stories. These are not tales of the star, theshepherds and the manger, but of common people confronted by all the beauty,terror, doubt and confusion of the 20th century. What remains? Cendrars'sprofound vision and a steadfast belief that the incarnation of the spirit does,indeed, endure.