Night of the Radishes: A Novel - Hardcover

Benitez, Sandra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786864001 ISBN 13: 9780786864003

Publisher: Hachette Books, 2004

Synopsis

From critically acclaimed author Sandra Benitez comes a compelling novel that takes one woman on a journey from Minnesota to Mexico in a search that tests her marriage, uncovers family secrets, and forces her to discover who she truly is.

Annie Rush--a 34-year-old Minnesotan--seems to be living every woman's dream: She has an interesting job, loyal husband, and adorable sons. But just beneath the surface, a series of family tragedies haunts her, including the death of her twin sister more than three decades earlier. Her father, plagued by guilt, shot himself soon thereafter; a few years later Annie's brother Hub Hart left home for good. While they haven't had contact for decades, the death of their mother compels Annie to embark on a search for her lost sibling. Hub's trail takes Annie all the way to Oaxaca, Mexico, a town exuberant with Christmas and the Night of the Radishes celebrations. Amid the vibrant festivities, Annie is drawn to Joe, a Berkeley professor staying at the same inn. She must decide whether her love for her husband is great enough to resist Joe, and, ultimately, who was to blame for her sister's death.

About this title

About the Author:

Sandra Benítez is the author of A Place Where the Sea Remembers, which won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award. She is also the author of Bitter Grounds, which won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award, and The Weight of All Things, which was a Book Sense 76 selection. Benítez is a past Keller-Edelstein Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Minnesota, and recently won a Bush Foundation Fellowship in Fiction. She lives in Minnesota.

From Publishers Weekly:

Set in Minnesota and Mexico, Benitez's engrossing fourth novel recounts the journey of a responsible daughter who travels south to search for her long-lost brother. Thirty-four-year-old Annie Hart Rush is living a mundane life in Minneapolis until her mother's death leaves her $1 million and, far more interestingly, a journal written on her deathbed that forces Annie to rethink her past. She learns that her brother, Hub, who ran away from home at 17, had been sending postcards to her mother all the while that Annie thought he'd disappeared, and she flies to Oaxaca to track him down. After a rough beginning, the novel finds its stride, rewarding persistent readers with a suspenseful plot and well-developed characters. Benitez does a great job of capturing landscapes, both north and south of the border, and she crafts a convincing voice for the mother's journal, which appears in excerpts throughout the book. Fans of the author's previous novels (A Place Where the Sea Remembers; Bitter Grounds, etc.) will appreciate her detailed descriptions of Annie's emotional growth-much of which happens during the intimate conversations she has with a Berkeley professor who's staying at her hotel (while Annie's husband is at home taking care of the kids). Thanks to Benitez's superb, lyrical writing, this evocative novel manages suspense without sacrificing beautiful prose.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0786864001
• ISBN 13: 9780786864003
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288