Review by Booklist Review
Cultural journalist Borgo's unsettling debut novel opens with Adelaida Falcon burying her mother at a pitiful funeral in a desolate cemetery in present-day Caracas, Venezuela. After that ordeal, she navigates the return trip to her apartment and her life alone in a desperate city filled with regime-sanctioned thugs where the local currency is not worth the paper it's printed on. Adelaida, a brave woman who lives by the written word, tells her braided story, from her childhood in the rural village of Ocumare, through her years as a married woman who survives the hideous tragedy of her husband's murder thanks to her mother's strong love. Back at her building, Adelaida finds scant support from friends and neighbors who are also terrified or have been tortured. Her one stroke of luck is finding her neighbor dead in the apartment next door, which leads on a grotesque path to liberation and exile. Borgo's beautiful prose belies the brutal reality of the breakdown in civil society she lays bare in this powerful literary look at strife-torn Venezuela.--Sara Martinez Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sainz Borgo's excellent debut is a harrowing account of one woman grieving the recent death of her mother while attempting to survive the political unrest in Caracas, Venezuela. Adelaida buries her namesake after having drained their savings buying medicine on the black market. Ana, Adelaida's closest friend, fears the worst has befallen her missing brother, Santiago, after the Sons of the Revolution arrest him. When Adelaida's apartment is taken over by thugs, she discovers her neighbor Aurora dead in the apartment next door. During an attempt to dispose of her body, she encounters Santiago, who appears to have joined the group that kidnapped him. Though she doesn't fully trust him, they take shelter in Aurora's apartment, where Adelaida finds troves of meticulously kept documents that will help her impersonate Aurora and escape Venezuela. The novel alternates scenes of present-day chaos with Adelaida's memories of her loving mother, and Sainz Borgo infuses both sections with heartbreaking details that stay with the reader: the squeal of a pet turtle as it's boiled to death, heirloom plates smashed with malice. She does a fantastic job of showcasing Adelaida's personal despair within the greater agony of the country. Readers will appreciate how Sainz Borgo puts a human face on the tragedy of Venezuela's upheaval. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Named after her beloved mother, Adelaida Falcón lives in Caracas, Venezuela. The city is full of violence and death, with corruption and radical regimes having made it a dangerous place. When a group of female black marketeers dealing in illegally obtained foodstuffs take over her apartment, Adelaida moves next door after discovering former resident Aurora Peralta dead on the living room floor. After disposing of the body and realizing that the violence around her is becoming worse, Adelaida commits all her time and resources to learning what she can about Aurora. Soon she escapes, taking Aurora's identity and the euros she finds hidden in the apartment, and, in scenes where emotions are vividly and realistically depicted, starts a new life in Madrid. VERDICT Extremely well written, beautifully translated, and graphic enough to make the reader feel afraid of the knocking on the door, this debut novel offers a heartfelt, personal story told without sentimentality while offering keen insight into the everyday fight for survival in a place that is still very much a failed state.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Former Venezuelan journalist Sainz Borgo's fictional debut shows a woman caught in the violent disintegration of her city and homeland at a time of acute personal loss.Adelaida Falcn's beloved mother has just died of cancer, leaving her alone in the world, and Caracas is going to the dogs. "Everything was disappearing as fast as my mother faded....Everything was ending: our life, our money, our strength. Even the days were now abbreviated. Being in the street at six in the evening was asking to cut your life short." Through a haze of grief, Adelaida watches protesters clashing with the Sons of the Revolution in the streets below. ("Bastards of the Revolution," she thinks.) The air reeks of tear gas and pepper spray. The story alternates between the violent, increasingly desperate present and a happier time when Caracas drew people from all over the globe. ("I was born and raised in a country that took in men and women from other lands. Tailors, bakers, builders, plumbers, shopkeepers, traders.") She remembers visits to an Italian shopkeeper, vacations in the countryside with her mother, songs sung by women hulling maize by hand. Now Venezuelan paper money is worthless, foreign currency outlawed, and rationing so severe that sanitary napkins are "more valuable than toilet paper." Adelaida returns from a failed attempt to buy bread to find she can't open her door. A menacing crew of women black marketeers has taken possession of her apartment. The ringleader, wearing her mother's favorite blouse, laughs when she threatens to call the authorities. Adelaida's subsequent attempts to find safety involve, among other things, a corpse that needs to be disposed of, a friend's brother who was kidnapped by the Sons of the Revolution and is now in hiding, and a brazen, high-stakes gamble with a stolen identity. Sainz Borgo renders the psychological and emotional toll of government collapse with both nuance and authority, thrusting the reader into Adelaida's struggle for existence and the stark choices before her. "We found ourselves wishing ill on the innocent and the executioner alike. We were incapable of differentiating between them."A propulsively written, harrowing story, as desperate as it is timely. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
