Fire from the Andes: Short Fiction by Women from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru
In the last 15 years, many English-language readers have been introduced to Latin American women's literature in translation, a field dominated by writers from Argentina and Chile. This anthology of short stories by 24 contemporary women writers now brings us women's writings from the Andean countries of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. The stories, for the most part dark, center on women's interior lives. In Ecuadoran Monica Bravo's "Wings for Dominga," an old woman outwits Death herself as she knits her memories into her shroud. Bolivian Marcella Gutierrez wryly retells the story of Adam and Eve and Lilith as a courtroom drama. Peruvian Pilar Dughi describes a bored, hopeless young woman who turns to terrorism. Catalina Lohmann, another Peruvian, uses a lighter tone to satirize dictatorships in her chronicle of a bus ride through the neighborhoods of Lima. Each story is preceded by a critical biographical introduction, and the book also includes an excellent bibliography of Spanish-language short story collections and of general bibliographies of the literature of these countries. Highly recommended for large public libraries and academic collections.?Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, Ore.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.