The Ladies of Managua
A Novel
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Lushly evocative of Nicaragua, its tumultuous history, and vibrant present, Eleni N. Gage's The Ladies of Managua brings you into the lives of three strong and magnetic women, as they uncover the ramifications of the choices they made in their pasts and begin to understand the ways in which love can shape their futures.
When Maria Vazquez returns to Nicaragua for her beloved grandfather's funeral, she brings with her a mysterious package from her grandmother's past—and a secret of her own. And she also carries the burden of her tense relationship with her mother Ninexin, once a storied revolutionary, now a tireless government employee.
Between Maria and Ninexin lies a chasm created by the death of Maria's father, who was killed during the revolution when Maria was an infant, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother Isabela as Ninexin worked to build the new Nicaragua. As Ninexin tries to reach her daughter, and Maria wrestles with her expectations for her romance with an older man, Isabela, the mourning widow, is lost in memories of attending boarding school in 1950's New Orleans, where she loved and lost almost sixty years ago.
When the three women come together to bid farewell to the man who anchored their family, they are forced to confront their complicated, passionate relationships with each other and with their country—and to reveal the secrets that each of them have worked to conceal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Gage's (Other Waters) sweet, stately story, three generations of women reunite in Managua, Nicaragua, for a family funeral, where they reflect on their loves, losses, and what the future holds for each of them. Isabela, burying her husband of over 50 years, slips into memories of her first love while her daughter, Ninexin, who left her husband and child to fight for her country, longs to reconnect with her own daughter, Maria, who returns to Nicaragua from New York as an adult with secrets of her own. Unfolding in an unhurried fashion through these three alternating viewpoints, the first half of the book revolves around each woman's interior reflections: Maria's anxiety over her noncommittal boyfriend and her long-held resentment toward her mother, Ninexin's guilt at leaving her daughter behind, and Isabela's absorption in reliving a long-ago love affair. The story comes to life, however, as mysteries are revealed, such as just what Maria is running away from and the true circumstances of Maria's father's death as a young, idealistic revolutionary. Along the way, glimpses of the beautiful landscape and the history of Nicaragua provide a backdrop to a universal narrative of hurt and forgiveness.
