In this retelling of an old folktale, an old woman named Esperanza (originally called Tia Miseria) gives her last pear to a beggar and is rewarded with the best pear crop she's ever had--and the power to ensnare anyone she wants in her tree. When Señor Death comes for her, Esperanza tricks him into climbing her tree, where he becomes stuck, unable to come down and do his work. From that point on, no one dies. But when Esperanza learns that the end...