From Library Journal
Danae lives in present-day Havana with her husband and two children. In the midst of a midlife crisis, she thinks back to a summer in the 1970s when she was sent to the country to labor in the fields. The work was hard, the accommodations minimal, and the food substandard. However, Danae met a local girl named Tierra Fortuna, and as the two became friends, she was introduced to all the magical creatures and features of the area. The girls experienced their "first love" that summer-with each other-and memories of their relationship compel Danae to abandon her husband and children and return to the country to find Tierra and reclaim their love. In her third novel to appear in English (after I Gave You All I Had), Valdes offers a graphic description of both adolescence and life in Cuba, ultimately building her novel from a series of events somewhat unhinged from reality. Valdes's use of nonhuman (usually) inanimate objects as storytellers keeps the reader off balance. This study in contrasts is recommended primarily for literature collections.
Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education, ProvidenceCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"An absorbing meditation on love, spirituality, adolescence and existence." (Bloomsbury Review )
