Pedro the vast A novel

In Trujillo's equally heady and thrilling sci-fi debut, panic attack--prone mycologist Giovanna Oddó is summoned to a provincial Chilean hospital to consult on a strange case of "lethal blight" believed to be caused by the mushroom Cryptococcus gatti; four workers at a nearby eucalyptus farm have died from inhaling its spores, and another has just come out of a coma. As Giovanna chases a mushroom that is both deadly and highly intelligent, the coma survivor, Pedro, begins spouting cryptic babble that enterprising priest Balthazar frames as prophecy and publishes as The Compendium of Pedro the Vast. Soon, worshippers hail Pedro as "a miraculous Christ." To this colorfully satiric if occasionally convoluted tale, Trujillo adds a parallel narrative about Pedro's school-age children, Pato and Catalina, and their struggle to survive while their father's in the hospital. The plot simmers with violence, including fierce sibling rivalry and political turmoil as Chile is engulfed in protests. As things reach a boiling point, Trujillo makes a meal of the fungilike connections, invisible and tenuous but everywhere, between people, events, past and present, and life and death. It's a lot to chew on, but Trujillo's careful attention to detail and Myers's smooth translation makes it go down easy. (Jan.)