The Island of Eternal Love - Softcover

Chaviano, Daína

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594483795 ISBN 13: 9781594483790

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2009

Synopsis

A magical new novel "of loss and love across more than a century of Cuba's past."(Chicago Sun-Times)

In an effort to escape her solitude in Miami, Cecilia seeks refuge in a bar where she meets Amalia, a mysterious old woman whose fascinating tale keeps Cecilia returning night after night. Her powerful story of long-vanished epochs weaves the saga of three families from far-flung pieces of the world. A suicide in China unleashes a chain of family reactions; a strange curse pursues certain women in a Spanish town; and a young woman is seized from her home on the African coast and transported to an unfamiliar world. These characters' lives will become entwined over time, from Cuba under Spanish colonial rule to the present day. Ardent, predestined loves from the past will gain renewed strength in Cecilia, who is also obsessed by the mystery of a phantom house that appears and disappears throughout the city of Miami, and whose secret she is attempting to discover.

The Island of Eternal Love is an historical family saga with many plot lines and an atmosphere charged with mystery. Published in 25 languages, it has become the most widely-translated Cuban novel of all time.

About this title

About the Author:

Daína Chaviano is the award-winning author of several novels published in Spanish. Winner of the acclaimed Azorín Award for Best Novel for El hombre, la hembra y el hambre (Man, Woman and Hunger), her most recent work, The Island of Eternal Love, was the recipient of the 2007 Florida Book Awards’ Gold Medal for Best Spanish Language Book and has been translated into twenty languages around the world. A Havana native, Chaviano has lived in Miami since 1991.

From Publishers Weekly:

In Chaviano's first English translation, historical fiction is given a strong if awkward shot of the supernatural. Cecilia, a Cuban-born Miami journalist, investigates reports of a phantom house that appears in random areas of the city. As she tries to unlock the mystery, she becomes equally entranced by Amalia, an old woman she meets at a Little Havana bar. With only an eccentric great aunt to call family in her adopted city, Cecilia returns again and again to hear Amalia's chronicle of three bloodlines from across the planet that converge in Cuba. Replete with romance, clashing cultures and bloodshed, Amalia's story also has its share of auras, fairy music and imps (including Martinico, who haunts the women in Amalia's family). A descendant of clairvoyants, Cecilia is enthralled by the old woman, but whether readers will be enthralled is another question. Characters are more quirk than flesh, the dialogue is often stilted and though the supernatural plays a large part, the elements frequently feel uncomfortably inserted (such as the cameo of a goat-hoofed Pan). A stronger grounding—either in reality or the supernatural—might have helped this find its groove. (June)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1594483795
• ISBN 13: 9781594483790
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416