Freebook! - Buy Two, Get One Free
 
 

Special Offers see all

Enter to WIN!

Weekly drawing for $100 credit. Subscribe to PowellsBooks.news for a chance to win.
Privacy Policy

More at Powell's

Recently Viewed clear list

Interviews | September 19, 2013

Chris Faatz: IMG Larry Watson: The Powells.com Interview

0 comments By Chris Faatz

Larry WatsonLarry Watson, the author of Montana 1948 and many other fine novels, has just published Let Him Go, his latest foray into literary fiction. Let Him... Continue »
  1. $16.80 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Let Him Go

    Larry Watson 9781571311023
spacer
Ships free on qualified orders.
$6.95
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
3 Burnside Literature- A to Z

In the Time of the Butterflies

by

In the Time of the Butterflies Cover

ISBN13: 9780452274426
ISBN10: 0452274427
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 3 left in stock at $6.95!

 

Awards

ALA Best Book for Young Adults 1995
ALA Notable Book 1995
National Book Critics Circle Award: Finalist 1995
back to top

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

On a deserted mountain road in the Dominican Republic in 1960, three young women from a pious Catholic family were assassinated after visiting their husbands who had been jailed as suspected rebel leaders. The Mirabal sisters, thus martyred, became mythical figures in their country, where they are known as Las Mariposas (the butterflies). Three decades later, Julia Alvarez, daughter of the Dominican Republic and author of the acclaimed How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, brings the Mirabal sisters back to life in this extraordinary novel.

Each of the sisters speaks in her own voice; beginning as young girls in the 1940s, their stories vary from hair ribbons to gun-running to prison torture. Their story is framed by their surviving sister who tells her own tale of suffering and dedication to the memory of Las Mariposas.

This inspired portrait of four women is a haunting statement about the human cost of political oppression, and is destined to take its place alongside Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of solitude and Allende's The House of the Spirits as one of the great 20th-century Latin American novels.

Review:

"Alvarez captures the terrorized atmosphere of a police state....As the sisters' energetic fervor turns to anguish, Alvarez conveys their courage and their desperation, and the full import of their tragedy." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Though murder, torture, and imprisonment are ever-present, [Alvarez] wisely choses to focus on the personal lives of these young wives and mothers, full of love, beauty, and, especially, hope. Highly recommended for its luminescence and relevance." Library Journal

Review:

"[The] novel is a statement about politics and history told in very human terms and, as importantly, told not with outrage, but with self-possession." Booklist

Review:

"Alvarez's voice is her own, grounded in realism yet alive with the magic of everyday human beings who summon extraordinary courage and determination to fight for their beliefs. As mesmerizing as the Mirabal sisters themselves." Kirkus Reviews

Synopsis:

Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republica in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.
back to top

About the Author

Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic before emigrating to the United States at the age of 10. She now lives in Vermont, where she is a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
mgtr6070, May 17, 2012 (view all comments by mgtr6070)
My bookclub assigned this. I made it through the first half with just a bit of eye-rolling and sighing. Now it's become unbearable. Ms Alvarez presents these women as easy archetypes: a cutesy, a natural mother, a co-dependent and a feminist. The real humans HAD to have been more interesting. The real story HAS to be more engaging. This is so formulaic I find it troubling. I will be reading a biography of the sisters rather than this.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
mariposamarie, October 10, 2007 (view all comments by mariposamarie)
From the book's very beginning, you know that three of the four Mirabal sisters are going to be assassinated. As you become acquainted with each of them- all mothers and ordinary women- one a lawyer, one a young bride- you wish the ending were not so. None of the sisters planned on becoming rebel spies and gun runners in the Dominican Republic, but that was what life demanded from them. This story of grace and courage in the face of despotism is based on true events. An inspiring read.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(31 of 39 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 2 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780452274426
Author:
Alvarez, Julia
Publisher:
Plume
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
History
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
Dominican Republic
Subject:
Women revolutionaries
Subject:
Women revolutionaries -- Dominican Republic -- Fiction.
Subject:
Historical
Subject:
Dominican Republic History 1930-1961.
Copyright:
1995
Edition Description:
Mass Market
Series Volume:
103-30
Publication Date:
19950801
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
from 12
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
352
Dimensions:
8.07x5.25x.73 in. .64 lbs.
Age Level:
from 18
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. Dreaming in Cuban Used Trade Paper $3.50
  2. Saving the World: A Novel
    Used Hardcover $5.50
  3. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their...
    Used Trade Paper $2.50
  4. The House on Mango Street (Vintage...
    Used Trade Paper $5.95
  5. The Secret Life of Bees
    Used Trade Paper $4.50
  6. The Things They Carried
    Used Trade Paper $3.50
back to top

Related Subjects


Featured Titles » Literature
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

In the Time of the Butterflies Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$6.95 In Stock
Product details 352 pages Plume Books - English 9780452274426 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Alvarez captures the terrorized atmosphere of a police state....As the sisters' energetic fervor turns to anguish, Alvarez conveys their courage and their desperation, and the full import of their tragedy." Publishers Weekly
"Review" by , "Though murder, torture, and imprisonment are ever-present, [Alvarez] wisely choses to focus on the personal lives of these young wives and mothers, full of love, beauty, and, especially, hope. Highly recommended for its luminescence and relevance."
"Review" by , "[The] novel is a statement about politics and history told in very human terms and, as importantly, told not with outrage, but with self-possession."
"Review" by , "Alvarez's voice is her own, grounded in realism yet alive with the magic of everyday human beings who summon extraordinary courage and determination to fight for their beliefs. As mesmerizing as the Mirabal sisters themselves."
"Synopsis" by , Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republica in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...




Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.