num_pages: 320
description: This new novel by US Latino author, Alma Flor Ada, tells the story of a family, the Salvatierras, in its fourth generation between 1868 and 1936 in the island of Cuba. With the setting and the racial diversity of the Caribbean, it has a combination of personal destiny interwoven with historical destiny. The births and the deaths of the characters are intertwined with political events of a country that will undergo a war, the Ten-Year War, and will find itself influenced by the United States and Spain. It is inevitable to think of the Buend¨ªas (One Hundred Years of Solitude) or about the Truebas (The House of the Spirits) when reading the Salvatierra¡¯s family saga. Details such as the fertility in the hands of Serafina giving life to any plant she touches, the figure of the authoritarian father, men taking care of the land while the women raised the children, and forced marriages, are all elements in common to other Latin American novels. Magical realism is present in a very subtle way within the narration. ¡°A passionate novel full of poetic flight and philosophical depth. The island of Cuba is captured in all its facets, from the baroque complexity of its social classes, to the exuberant wealth of its nature, its flora and its fauna ¡­ Isabel, the protagonist, personifies the best thing of the revolution, because ¡®the only noble thing about the war was to have abolished slavery, and the shameful idea that a human being could own another one.¡¯ The characters of this novel are outlined skillfully, and hold until the end the layout of a fine literary work.¡± ¨DRosario Ferr¨¦
language: Spanish; Castilian
title: A pesar del amor
titlecomplete: A pesar del amor (Love Was Not Enough)
ratings_count: 5
publisher: Alfaguara