Meet Me under the Ceiba
Sirias brings to life a small Nicaraguan town as it reacts to the brutal murder of Adela, a beautiful young lesbian who made the mistake of challenging a wealthy landowner by luring away his mistress. The novel is based on a true story, which Sirias researched while visiting Nicaragua. He is personified as a professor spending the summer near his parents' birthplace, where he hears the story of the lesbian lovers, and attempts to reconstruct the days before and after Adela's demise. By means of his interviews, the reader comes to know Adela's family, her former lover (who feared for Adela's safety), Adela's former husband (who never dreamed that being a lesbian would get her killed), and Adela's magnetic and stunningly beautiful lover Ixelia, who was prostituted by her mother at age 11. The problems faced by homosexuals in Nicaragua are encapsulated in this one case: Adela's murder is deemed a minor offense because she was a lesbian. A provocative novel that opens up a little-known world to its readers.Deborah Donavan--Booklist