The Distant Marvels
Book - 2015 Fiction / Acevedo, Chantel 1 On Shelf No requests on this item
Sign in to request
Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Acevedo, Chantel
On Shelf At: Downtown Library
Location & Checkout Length | Call Number | Checkout Length | Item Status |
---|---|---|---|
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout |
Fiction / Acevedo, Chantel | 4-week checkout | On Shelf |
Maria Sirena tells stories. She does it for money - she was a favorite in the cigar factory where she worked as a lettora - and for love, spinning gossamer tales out of her own past for the benefit of friends, neighbors, and family. But now, like a modern-day Scheherazade, she will be asked to tell one last story so that eight women can keep both hope and themselves alive. Cuba, 1963. Hurricane Flora, one of the deadliest hurricanes in recorded history, is bearing down on the island. Seven women have been forcibly evacuated from their homes and herded into the former governor's mansion, where they are watched over by another woman, a young soldier of Castro's new Cuba named Ofelia. Outside the storm is raging and the floodwaters are rising. In a single room on the top floor of the governor's mansion, Maria Sirena begins to tell the incredible story of her childhood during Cuba's Third War of Independence; of her father Augustin, a ferocious rebel; of her mother, Lulu, an astonishing woman who fought, loved, dreamed, and suffered as fiercely as her husband. Stories, however, have a way of taking on a life of their own, and transported by her story's momentum, Maria Sirena will reveal more about herself than she or anyone ever expected. Chantel Acevedo's The Distant Marvels is an epic adventure tale, a family saga, a love story, a stunning historical account of armed struggle against oppressors, and a long tender plea for forgiveness. It is, finally, a life-affirming novel about the kind of love that lasts a lifetime and the very art of storytelling itself.
REVIEWS & SUMMARIES
Booklist ReviewSummary / Annotation
Author Notes
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The Distant Marvels submitted by angie. on July 23, 2021, 5:22pm The Distant Marvels great book!
PUBLISHED
New York : Europa Editions, 2015.
Year Published: 2015
Description: 292 pages ; 21 cm.
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
1609452526
9781609452520
SUBJECTS
Storytelling -- Fiction.
Hurricanes -- Fiction.
Cuba -- History -- Fiction.
Historical fiction.