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A carregar... Where There Was Fire (edição 2023)por John Manuel Arias (Autor)
Informação Sobre a ObraWhere There Was Fire por John Manuel Arias
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Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. A lethal fire in one of the most profitable banana plantations owned by the American Fruit Company in Costa Rica in 1968 ended in a night of personal tragedy for Teresa Cepeda Valverde ‘s family. Following the tragic death of her mother Amarga and the disappearance of her husband of eleven years José María, employed with the company, Teresa leaves for the United States, leaving her children, eleven-year-old Lyra and eight-year-old Carmen, in the care of friends. The tragedy and secrets that surround their family, their mother’s abandonment and her abrupt return six years later cast a long shadow on the lives of both sisters – the impact of which follows them into their adult lives. Twenty-seven years later we meet adult Lyra, a fertility counselor in San José who is raising her deceased sister’s ten-year-old son. Estranged from her mother who is approaching her sixtieth birthday and has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Lyra tries to piece together her family’s history with the American Fruit Company, the cover-ups, corruption and how the same poisoned their lives in more ways than one. Will her sixtieth birthday celebrations help bridge the rift between Teresa and her daughter and pave the way to healing or will the revelations that come to light tear them further apart? With its strong premise, an atmospheric setting, folklore and magical realism incorporated into the narrative, an element of mystery and the realistic depiction of unethical and exploitative corporate practices that put the well-being of employees at risk, Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias holds a lot of promise. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite taken with the execution. The author addresses several important themes such as tragedy and generational trauma, corporate greed and corruption, racism and colonialism, mental health, post-partum depression, suicide and dysfunctional family dynamics. I found the central plot intriguing and I thought that the main characters were well-thought-out. The narrative is presented through multiple perspectives spanning past and present-day timelines. I found the narrative to be more than a tad disjointed and lacking in much-needed depth and closure which detracted from the overall reading experience. I struggled to stay invested in the story on account of the uneven pacing and the several supporting characters who were interesting but the relevance of whom to the main plot was left largely unexplored, thereby rendering them somewhat unnecessary. There were several plot holes and the dynamic between the main characters and their individual storylines should have been explored in more depth. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Adriana Sananes. While I did enjoy the narration, I thought that the narrative was a tad difficult to follow on audio alone because of multiple timelines and perhaps too many characters and PoVs. Perhaps involving more narrators would have made the same easier to follow. I would recommend keeping the book handy if you opt for the audio. Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. sem críticas | adicionar uma crítica
"In John Manuel Arias's lush and lyrical debut, a Costa Rican family wrestles with the aftermath of neocolonialism, a deadly secret, and an all-consuming fire. Costa Rica, 1968. When a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Company's most lucrative banana plantation burning all evidence of a massive cover-up, the future of Teresa Cepeda Valverde's family is changed forever. Now, twenty-seven years later, Teresa and her daughter Lyra are still picking up the pieces. Lyra wants nothing to do with Teresa, but is desperate to find out what happened to her family that fateful night. Teresa, haunted by a missing husband and the bitter ghost of her mother, Amarga, is unable to reconcile the past. What unfolds is a story of a mother and daughter trying to forgive what they do not yet understand, and the mystery at the heart of one family's rupture, steeped in machismo, jealousy, labor uprisings, and the havoc wreaked by banana plantations in Central America. Brimming with ancestral spirits, omens, and the anthropomorphic forces of nature, John Manuel Arias weaves a brilliant tapestry of love, loss, secrets, and redemption. Set in Costa Rica between 1968 and the mid-1990s, Where There Was Fire paints a vivid portrait of the ways in which agribusiness and international exploitation are intertwined with one family's fate"-- Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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A very skillful novel. It’s language-driven, which is not my usual thing but this one was written by my childhood friend. It was beautiful to read, which reminded me why I used to love language-driven books (but also took me months longer than it should have, which reminded me why I don’t read them much anymore). I enjoyed the symbolic language and the magical realism. The timeline of the story weaves back and forth, in order to reveal the puzzle pieces of the story in the desired order, but the characters and settings are distinct so it’s easy to go with the flow.
I was very intrigued by the story of the American Fruit Company, and I wouldn’t have minded more background on that. But the main theme is family trauma - when to cover it up, when to talk about it, how it gets passed on, and most importantly, when to forgive someone for the trauma they inflicted on you because of the trauma that had been inflicted on them. ( )