Rating: Not rated
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Lang:en
Summary
Compelling and unforgettable, this
remarkable, bittersweet story of a doomed love affair set
in the colonial era "demonstrates that one of the masters
of the form is still working at the height of his powers"
(The New York Times). Amid the lush, coastal tropics of a
South American seaport, an unruly, co pper-haired girl and
a bookish priest are caught in a chaste, ill-fated love
affair.
From
Library Journal
In
a Latin American port city during colonial times, a young
girl named Sierva Maria de Todos los Angeles?the only child
of the ineffectual Marquis de Casalduero?is bitten by a
rabid dog. Her father, who has shown no interest in the
child, begins a crusade to save her life, eventually
committing her to the Convent of Santa Clara when the
bishop persuades him that his daughter is possessed by
demons. In fact, Sierva Maria has shown no signs of being
infected by rabies or by demons; she is simply being
punished for being different. Having been raised by the
family's slaves, she knows their languages and wears their
Santeria necklaces; she is perceived by the effete European
Americans around her as "not of this world." Only the
priest who has reluctantly accepted the job as her exorcist
believes she is neither sick nor possessed but terrified
after being inexplicably "interred alive" among the
superstitious nuns. Nobel Prize winner Garcia Marquez
writes with his usual inventiveness, but over the years his
prose style has crystallized and condensed. The result is a
tale whose sharp social retort is made all the louder by
the luminous, uncluttered telling. Highly recommended.
-?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"