Description
Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Women's Studies. Translated from the Spanish by Jeffrey C. Barnett. Edited by Paula Sanmartin and Maria di Franscesco. Second place winner, 2016 International Latino Book Award for Best Novel, Historical Fiction—Bilingual or Spanish. A metaphor of a nation and its Diaspora, this bilingual edition of THE MEMORY OF SILENCE/MEMORIA DEL SILENCIO transcends the Cuban reality and becomes a story of universal breadth, a triumph of love and family over distance and politics. In 1959, at the age of 18, the twin sisters Lauri and Menchu share a common past, but their lives abruptly take on seemingly irreconcilable differences as Lauri leaves with her groom for Miami and Menchu remains in Havana. The text, then, becomes a series of interpolated chronicles, as each alternating chapter recounts one sister's life and then the other until finally in the present, now reunited, the sisters must confront the pain of the past and as well as the promise of the future. The novel's theme of reconciliation presents a refreshing message, and a timely one.
Author Bio
Uva de Aragón (Havana, 1944) has published a dozen books of essays, poetry, short stories, and the novel Memoria del Silencio (2002), which now is offered in its first translation into English. Some of her short stories and a play have also been translated and appear in textbooks and anthologies such as The Voice of the Turtle, Cuba: A Traveler's Literary Companion, and Cubana and Cuban-American Theater. She writes a weekly column for Diario Los Américas, which can also be read in her blog Habanera Soy (uvadearagon.wordpress.com). De Aragón has merited several literary awards in the United States, Europe and her native Cuba. Until her retirement in 2011, she was Associate Director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, where she also taught. Dr. de Aragón served for six years as Associate Editor of Cuban Studies, the most important academic journal focusing on Cuba. She is a graduate of the University of Miami, where she obtained a Ph.D. in Latin American and Spanish Literature. Uva has lived in the United States since 1959; since 1999 she visits Cuba frequently, where her work has also been included in anthologies and literary magazines. She comes from a family of writers, and has two daughters and four grandsons.
Author City: MIAMI, FL USA