Beyond the Ties of Blood: A Novel - Softcover

Mallon, Florencia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1605984612 ISBN 13: 9781605984612

Publisher: Pegasus Books, 2013

Synopsis

In the tradition of Isabel Allende, a family saga that explores the lives touched by the tragedies of Chile's vibrant history

Imprisoned and tortured in the aftermath of the 1973 coup while her love, Manuel, is savagely murdered, Eugenia Aldunate is a rare survivor of the countless "disappeared" that would haunt Chile's collective memory for decades.  While still in prison, Eugenia discovers she is pregnant and is exiled to Mexico, then the United States to raise her daughter alone, forbidden to return.  She builds a quiet life for herself, but the scars on her arms to do not fade.  Horrific nightmares plague Eugenia each night, while each morning she aches for her homeland.

Nearly twenty years after her exile, Eugenia is called back to Chile to testify in Manuel's murder and seek justice for the others who disappeared.  A rare living witness to these "camps," Eugenia must come to grips with the legacy of violence and trauma inflicted by Pinochet's dictatorship and find truth and solace in the stories of those she left behind.

In the tradition of Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss and Julia Alvarez's In the Time of Butterflies, Beyond the Ties of Blood is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit and the transcendence of family.

 

About this title

About the Author

Florencia Mallon was raised in Santiago, Chile and the U.S. and educated at Harvard and Yale. She is the head of the History department at the University of Wisconsin and has written three non-fiction books about Latin American history. Florencia has been awarded a Guggenheim and a Fulbright fellowship and resides in Madison, Wisconsin.

Review

“Engrossing and complex. Florencia Mallon immerses readers in a vivid world in which family, political turmoil,and romance intersect. A powerful story told with wisdom and compassion.”
- Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep and American Wife

“Chilean history―intricately woven and dramatic in its narrative―has been the subject of several novels, but not in a manner as compelling as Florencia Mallon’s Beyond the Ties of Blood. A powerful story.”
- NBC Latino

“A compelling account of the lasting effects of torture on one family. What are the consequences of knowing ‘the truth?'”
- Iris Gomez, New York Times bestselling author of Try to Remember

About this edition

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1605984612
• ISBN 13: 9781605984612
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384