Synopses & Reviews
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas — "The Butterflies."
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters — Minerva, Patria, Mara Teresa, and the survivor, Ded — speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human cost of political oppression.
Review
"A fascinating and powerful picture of a family and a nation's history." The Dallas Morning News
Review
"A gorgeous and sensitive novel....A compelling story of courage, patriotism and familial devotion." People
Review
"Imagination and history in sublime combination....Read this book for the novel it is. Read this book for the place it takes you. Read this book and take courage." The Denver Post
Review
"A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time." St. Petersburg Times
Review
"A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time." --
St. Petersburg Times The Dallas Morning News
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.
Synopsis
The 25th Anniversary Edition of the Classic Novel
With a New Postscript by Julia Alvarez
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--"The Butterflies."
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, Mar a Teresa, and the survivor, Ded --speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human cost of political oppression.
Synopsis
25th Anniversary Edition
"A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time." --St. Petersburg Times It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Le nidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies.
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, Mar a Teresa, and the survivor, Ded --speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression.
Synopsis
By the international bestselling author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and Afterlife, In the Time of the Butterflies, first published in 1994, is "beautiful, heartbreaking and alive ... a lyrical work of historical fiction based on the story of the Mirabal sisters, revolutionary heroes who had opposed and fought against Trujillo." (Concepci n de Le n, New York Times) "Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the Garc a Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."--Francisco Cant , The New York Times Book Review
"This Julia Alvarez classic is a must-read for anyone of Latinx descent." --Popsugar.com
"A gorgeous and sensitive novel . . . A compelling story of courage, patriotism and familial devotion." --People
"Shimmering . . . Valuable and necessary." --Los Angeles Times
"A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time." --St. Petersburg Times
"Alvarez does a remarkable job illustrating the ruinous effect the 30-year dictatorship had on the Dominican Republic and the very real human cost it entailed."--Cosmopolitan.com It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Le nidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies.
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, Mar a Teresa, and the survivor, Ded --speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression.
Synopsis
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, internationally bestselling author and literary icon Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies is "beautiful, heartbreaking and alive ... a lyrical work of historical fiction based on the story of the Mirabal sisters, revolutionary heroes who had opposed and fought against Trujillo." (Concepci n de Le n, New York Times) Alvarez's new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, is coming April 2, 2024. Pre-order now
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Le nidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies.
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, Mar a Teresa, and the survivor, Ded --speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression.
"Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the Garc a Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."--Francisco Cant , The New York Times Book Review
"This Julia Alvarez classic is a must-read for anyone of Latinx descent." --Popsugar.com
"A gorgeous and sensitive novel . . . A compelling story of courage, patriotism and familial devotion." --People
"Shimmering . . . Valuable and necessary." --Los Angeles Times
"A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time." --St. Petersburg Times
"Alvarez does a remarkable job illustrating the ruinous effect the 30-year dictatorship had on the Dominican Republic and the very real human cost it entailed."--Cosmopolitan.com
About the Author
Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. A novelist, poet, and essayist, she is the author of nineteen books, including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents,In the Time of the Butterflies—a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Selection—Yo!, Something to Declare, In the Name of Salome, Saving theWorld, A Wedding in Haiti, and The Woman I Kept to Myself. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including the 2013 National Medal of Arts, a Latina Leader Award in Literature in 2007 from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the 2002 Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the 2000 Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s 1996 program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” A writer-in-residence at Middlebury College, Alvarez and her husband, Bill Eichner, established Alta Gracia, an organic coffee farm–literacy arts center, in her homeland, the Dominican Republic.