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by Ivonne Lamazares
Two estranged sisters with a past as complicated as their present acrimoniously reunite in 1990s Cuba to confront the riddle of family amidst the scars of political upheaval.
In the summer of 1993, Yuri, a teenage orphan, lives with her strict, religious Aunt Ruth in a Havana suburb when Mariela, a thirty-four-year-old artist, arrives from the U.S. with a shocking revelation. She claims to be Yuri's sister, insisting that she and Yuri share a mother and that Ruth is nothing more than Mariela's "kidnapper." Mariela has spent the past three decades in American orphanages and has returned to Cuba to reclaim her roots and culture, make art, and perhaps seek vengeance on Ruth for sending her to America through Operation Pedro Pan. Yuri is both fascinated and repulsed by the young, glamourous, and aggrieved Mariela. When Ruth is jailed for unknown charges, Yuri falls further into Mariela's mercurial orbit.
Through Yuri's reminiscent narration (from Havana, to NYC, to Miami, and back to Havana), The Tilting House explores the riddles of identity and family loyalty, the effects of losing one's mother and motherland, the scars of political and historical upheaval, and an immigrant's complex quest both to return "home" and to be free from the past. Through her long journey, Yuri comes to understand that the past cannot be fully recovered, or fully escaped, and she approaches the possibility of compassion for Mariela, for Ruth, for others, and for herself.
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This information about The Tilting House was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ivonne Lamazares was born in Havana. She left Cuba at the age of thirteen and settled in Florida. Her first novel, The Sugar Island, was translated into seven languages. Publishers Weekly's starred review called The Sugar Island "spare, lyrical, and brilliantly observant." The Washington Post called Lamazares "a fine literary voice." Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Latina Magazine, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. Lamazares is the recipient of an NEA and three Florida Individual Artist Fellowships. She lives in Miami and teaches writing at Miami Dade College.
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