Lovesick - Softcover

Ángeles Mastretta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022405032X ISBN 13: 9780224050326

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 1998

Synopsis

A spectacularly rich novel spanning fifty years in the history of a nation, a family, and a love affair. Set in the noble Mexican city of Puebla, this is the beautifully romantic story of Emilia Sauri, a charmed young woman in love with two men--one, a quixotic activist who heeds the call of the revolution, the other, a stable and devoted doctor who helps Emilia realize her own gift for healing.

* Riverhead's first full-tilt love story--with enormous crossover commercial potential * #1 bestseller throughout Latin America and Spain, selling 25,000 copies in its first week on sale in Mexico * Mastretta's first novel, Tear This Heart Out, has sold over one million copies worldwide

About this title

Review:

When young Emilia Sauri is born in turn-of-the-century Puebla, Mexico, her father expects great things for this child who will "live her entire life in a new century." Emilia grows up to be an independent woman, a doctor in a time and place when female physicians were few and far between, but history has a habit of sidetracking even the most regulated lives; the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1911 throws the nation into chaos and Emilia's future into uncertainty. Angeles Mastretta's second novel, Lovesick, follows the fortunes of Emilia and of Mexico as both are torn by the ravages of war. For Mexico, a dictator's triumphant overthrow slips rapidly into endless bloody revolution; for Emilia, her peaceful life as a healer is disrupted by her conflicting feelings for her lover, a fellow doctor, and Daniel Cuenca, a childhood friend-turned-revolutionary.

In real life, love and war seldom end neatly. So it is with Lovesick, a novel that refuses to give either its characters or readers easy solutions to complex problems. Emilia's choice between the meaningful existence she shares with her lover and the exhilaration she experiences with Daniel is at the heart of this book, yet Angeles Mastretta's novel doesn't wear that heart on its sleeve; like life, Lovesick leaves some questions unanswered.

From AudioFile:

A romantic novel of Mexico's tumultuous first fifty years in the twentieth century is told from the point of view of an intelligent, spirited and passionate woman. Fans of "The John Laraquette Show" will immediately recognize narrator Torres's distinctive voice. Here she seems new to reading aloud, taking the better part of the first side to rev up. Except for her authentic pronounciation of Spanish names, she brings nothing special to the gracefully written story, but at least she doesn't get in its way. Y.R. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 022405032X
• ISBN 13: 9780224050326
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288