White Rose--una Rosa Blanca: A Novel - Hardcover

Ephron, Amy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688163149 ISBN 13: 9780688163143

Publisher: William Morrow, 1999

Synopsis

Evangelina Cisneros is a very beautiful nineteen-year-old girl who, along with her father, is active in the struggle to oust the Spanish from Cuba in the late 1890s. When her father is arrested, she pleads his case to a Spanish general, who falls in love with her. She spurns his advances and is herself thrown in jail for her revolutionary activities.

When reports of her imprisonment reach the New York papers, Evangelina becomes a cause cilhbre among the city's many society women. William Randolph Hearst, recognizing an opportunity, sends one of his star journalists, Karl Decker, to Havana on the pretense of interviewing her when in fact he is on a mission to effect her escape. As she tells him her story, the two find themselves falling in love. Back in America, Decker's wife is becoming increasingly suspicious of her husband's absences. After a frightening escape, Evangelina and Karl arrive in New York, where they are heralded as heroes. But then they must inevitably face Decker's wife and a decision that will affect all their lives.

Based on a true story, White Rose is part romance and love story and part spy thriller. Set in both the exotic, primitive world of Cuba and the high-society milieu of Manhattan in 1897, here is a story that will inspire the imagination and capture the heart.

About this title

About the Author

Amy Ephron is the bestselling author of the acclaimed novels One Sunday Morning and A Cup of Tea. Her magazine pieces and essays have appeared in Vogue; Saveur; House Beautiful; the National Lampoon; the Los Angeles Times; the Huffington Post; Defamer; her own online magazine, One for the Table; and various other print and online publications. She recently directed a short film, Chloe@3AM, which was featured at the American Cinematheque’s Focus on Female Directors Short Film Showcase in January 2011. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alan Rader, and any of their five children who happen to drop in.

When reports of her imprisonment reach the New York papers, Evangelina becomes a cause cilhbre among the city's many society women. William Randolph Hearst, recognizing an opportunity, sends one of his star journalists, Karl Decker, to Havana on the pretense of interviewing her when in fact he is on a mission to effect her escape. As she tells him her story, the two find themselves falling in love. Back in America, Decker's wife is becoming increasingly suspicious of her husband's absences. After a frightening escape, Evangelina and Karl arrive in New York, where they are heralded as heroes. But then they must inevitably face Decker's wife and a decision that will affect all their lives.

Based on a true story, White Rose is part romance and love story and part spy thriller. Set in both the exotic, primitive world of Cuba and the high-society milieu of Manhattan in 1897, here is a story that will inspire the imagination and capture the heart.

Reviews

The latest effort from novelist (A Cup of Tea) and screenwriter Ephron is based on the true story of Evangelina Cisneros, who escaped imprisonment in Cuba with the aid of American journalist Charles Duval (aka Karl Decker) during the 1890s, just before the Spanish-American War. The determined, pretty 19-year-old chose to accompany her father to the Isle of Pines after he was arrested by the Spanish government on political charges. When her father escaped, Evangelina was left to face 20 years in Ceuta, an African penal colony no prisoner had ever survived. William Randolph Hearst sent Decker, his top reporter, to rescue Evangelina; like a modern heroine, she rescued him right back, helping him to make it safely off the island and following him to the U.S., where she met with President McKinley. The attraction between Karl and Evangelina may or may not have roots in fact, but as Ephron tells it, Karl gives scant consideration to his wife and child at home in Washington, D.C. This is an intriguing story and an important one, with special appeal for political and feminist audiences, but Ephron fails to bring it fully to life. Her decision to rely on Evangelina's own words for some of the dialogue ensures the proper historic tone and surely posed an interesting challenge for the writer, but the results are sometimes stilted, though Ephron's own prose is supple. The novel is fleshed out with a good deal of Cuban history and a look at early American cultural imperialism. But it is developed in too sketchy a fashion to involve the reader's emotions; this is all the more disappointing since the subject matter is so promising. (Sept.) FYI: Ephron is writing the screenplay and will be executive producer for a film based on this book that has been optioned by Warner Brothers.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Another historical romp from novelist/screenwriter Ephron (A Cup of Tea, 1997, etc.), who this time takes us south of the border and over the waves to Cuba on the eve of the Spanish-American War. By the end of the 19th century, the Spanish Empire had pretty much folded up its tent for good, at least in the Americas. Cuba was the only colony of any significance left, and even there the move for independence (under Jos Mart) was growing stronger every day; soon a military government was established, and rebels were hunted down assiduously and either deported or killed outright. Among the rebellious was Augustin Cisneros, a plantation foreman who had become a staunch patriot. Arrested for activities on behalf of the independence movement, Cisneros was sentenced to death by firing squad. His teenaged daughter Evangelina was able to intervene on his behalf, however, and the sentence was commuted to imprisonment on the Isle of Pines, one of the infamous concentration camps set up by the Spaniards to contain the rebellion. Evangelina is allowed to accompany her father to the Isle of Pines, and there the camp commandant falls in love with her. To resist his advances, Evangelina stabs him and is arrested as a rebel in her own right. When shes sent to the African penal colony of Ceuta, Evangelinas case became a cause clbre, inflaming world opinion against Spain. Enter Karl Decker. A reporter for Hearsts New York Journal, Decker is sent to Cuba to rescue Evangelina from prison. Using his press credentials to gain access, he pretends to interview Evangelina while laying the plan for her escape. Along the way, the two fall in love, and once Evangelina is out of harms way in New York, Decker has to find a way to pull off his own escapefrom his wife Katherine. But some prisons are more easily sprung than others. A vivid embellishment of a true account, Ephrons story is quick and lively enough to outrun the tedium thats the bane of historical romances. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This suspenseful novel, based on a true story, is set in 1897 Havana during Cuba's fight for freedom from Spanish rule. Evangelina Cisneros is the beautiful daughter of a Cuban revolutionary, just 19 years old and imprisoned on charges of insurrection, having angered the Spanish military governor by spurning his advances. A cause celebre among American women, her case receives the attention of William Randolph Hearst's newspaper, the Journal. Star reporter Karl Decker is dispatched to Havana under an assumed name, ostensibly to interview Evangelina, but actually to organize her escape to America, an extremely dangerous mission. The two find themselves in a web of intrigue where no one can be trusted and there is no margin for error. They also find themselves falling in love, though Evangelina's lover fights by her father's side and Karl's wife awaits his return to the States. Evangelina questions the Journal's motivation (is her story just good copy?), even as she assumes her unanticipated role in building U.S. support for the revolution. A memorable, beautifully written story. Grace Fill

It is not surprising that famed newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst would want a reporter to interview imprisoned Cuban revolutionary Evangelina Cisneros: she is young, beautiful, and a woman. But Hearst, whose paper's motto is "While others talk, the Journal acts," has further plans for resourceful and intrepid newspaperman Karl Decker. Karl is not only to talk with Evangelina but to rescue her from prison and smuggle her out of Cuba to the United States, where she is expected to persuade President McKinley and Congress to send troops to Cuba in support of the rebels. The secrecy, danger, total reliance on one another, and heady atmosphere of a Caribbean island in revolt force Karl and Evangelina into an intimate relationship they could not foresee, making them question their ideals. Reading this novel, with its compact prose, is like watching the movie that director Luc Besson plans to make of it. From the author of A Cup of Tea; recommended for readers who like their historical fiction short and vivid.
-ACynthia Johnson, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688163149
• ISBN 13: 9780688163143
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272