Synopses & Reviews
The story of a love that changed the destiny of a nation...
Set near the turn of the last century and based on the life of Cuban poet and revolutionary hero José Martí, Silent Wing bursts with passion, sensuality, and turbulence as it tells one of the most famous love stories in all of Latin America: The tale of the desperate and heartbreaking conflict an idealistic young man experiences when he finds himself caught between the woman he loves and the one he has promised to wed.
Julián, a charismatic Cuban poet possessed with a passionate love of freedom, is exiled from his homeland for demonstrating in favor of his country's independence from the tyrannical hold of Spain. He lands in Mexico City, where he proposes marriage to Lucía, the spinster daughter of a Cuban lawyer exiled in that city. Knowing that the wedding must wait until he establishes himself professionally, Julián goes to Guatemala City, where a teaching job awaits and where Lucía is to follow him in time.
What Julián has not reckoned on is that in Guatemala he will meet and fall madly in love with Sol, daughter of that country's great liberator, Don Manuel. For Sol, on the verge of womanhood, Julián is her first love, and she places her trust in him with total abandon. But Julián, a man of great principle, knows that even though he loves Sol beyond limits, he is expected to honor the pledge he made to Lucía, no matter how great the sacrifice, or how tragic the consequences.
Vividly portraying an era of honor and almost mystical innocence, yet intricately interwoven with political intrigue and turmoil, José Raúl Bernardo -- whose previous novel, The Secret of the Bulls, was named one of the best works of first fiction for 1996 by the Los Angeles Times -- weaves the kind of rich historical tapestry that has made great bestsellers of such novels as The Autumn of the Patriarch and Like Water for Chocolate.
Synopsis
The story of a love that changed the destiny of a nation...
Set near the turn of the last century and based on the life of Cuban poet and revolutionary hero José Martí, Silent Wing bursts with passion, sensuality, and turbulence as it tells one of the most famous love stories in all of Latin America: The tale of the desperate and heartbreaking conflict an idealistic young man experiences when he finds himself caught between the woman he loves and the one he has promised to wed.
Julián, a charismatic Cuban poet possessed with a passionate love of freedom, is exiled from his homeland for demonstrating in favor of his country's independence from the tyrannical hold of Spain. He lands in Mexico City, where he proposes marriage to Lucía, the spinster daughter of a Cuban lawyer exiled in that city. Knowing that the wedding must wait until he establishes himself professionally, Julián goes to Guatemala City, where a teaching job awaits and where Lucía is to follow him in time.
What Julián has not reckoned on is that in Guatemala he will meet and fall madly in love with Sol, daughter of that country's great liberator, Don Manuel. For Sol, on the verge of womanhood, Julián is her first love, and she places her trust in him with total abandon. But Julián, a man of great principle, knows that even though he loves Sol beyond limits, he is expected to honor the pledge he made to Lucía, no matter how great the sacrifice, or how tragic the consequences.
Vividly portraying an era of honor and almost mystical innocence, yet intricately interwoven with political intrigue and turmoil, José Raúl Bernardo -- whose previous novel, The Secret of the Bulls, was named one of the best works of first fiction for 1996 by the Los Angeles Times -- weaves the kind of rich historical tapestry that has made great bestsellers of such novels as The Autumn of the Patriarch and Like Water for Chocolate.
Synopsis
From the author of The Secret of the Bulls -- named one of the best works of first fiction for 1997 by the Los Angeles Times -- comes the passionate story of a charismatic Cuban poet caught between the woman he loves and the one he has promised to wed.
Set in the late 19th century, Silent Wing is at once a tragedy and a great romance, bursting with the passion, sensuality, and turbulence of a country on the verge of full bloom.
Julian, a gifted scholar and writer, is exiled from his native Cuba for demonstrating in favor of his country's independence from Spain. He heads for Mexico City, and soon proposes marriage to a friend's daughter, offering her an escape from almost certain spinsterhood. But later, in Guatemala City, he meets and falls madly in love with liberator Don Manuel's beautiful daughter, Sol. Only then does the enormity of his actions sink in. Not only has Julian pledged himself to a woman he neither knows nor loves, he must forget the woman of his dreams, who returns his ardor with all the abandon and trust of a young girl in love for the first time.
Evoking an era of honor and almost mystical innocence, Jose Raul Bernardo weaves the kind of rich historical tapestry that has made great bestsellers of such novels as The Autumn of the Patriarch and Like Water for Chocolate.
About the Author
José Raúl Bernardo is the author of The Secret of the Bulls, already translated into five languages, including Greek. Also a noted composer, Bernardo -- born in Havana and educated in Cuba and the United States -- now lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York State.
Table of Contents
Contents Prologue
Part One
Chirilingo
Part Two
Earthquake
Part Three
The Wave of the Gods
Part Four
Eruption
Part Five
The Sun
Epilogue