Product Description

a novel, Nicaragua, tr Edward Waters Hood

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1508809 in Books
• Published on: 1996-11-01
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 190 pages

Amazon.com Review
Set in part during the elections that would eventually bring Violeta Chamorro to power, Nicaraguan author Rosario Aguilar's novel The Lost Chronicles of Terra Firma jumps between two continents and several centuries as it follows the fortunes of seven very different women. One of these women, a young Nicaraguan journalist, provides the canvas upon which the others will appear as she roams the country in the company of her Spanish lover, collecting information for a novel about women in Nicaragua at the time of the Spanish conquest. Historical narrative juxtaposes against modern-day events to highlight Latin America's on-going struggle to integrate its old-world roots with new-world circumstances.

Though Ms. Aguilar does not consider herself a feminist writer, each of her seven novels has been concerned with the lives of women in Latin America. In The Lost Chronicles of Terra Firma, she succeeds in reading between the lines of historical accounts, written by and about men, in order to imagine the lives of the women who, though never mentioned, were instrumental in settling the new world.

From Booklist
In this intriguing fictional work, a Nicaraguan writer (with obvious parallels to Aguilar herself) prepares a historical novel about the Spanish conquest of her homeland, but from an unusual perspective: that of women involved in that cataclysmic clash of cultures, native and foreign. In the process of her research, she meets a beguiling journalist from Spain, in Nicaragua to cover the presidential election. The story of this Nicaraguan writer's developing a relationship with the Spaniard while simultaneously coming to terms with her country's past and her personal consciousness of nationality is interspersed with segments of the historical narrative she is preparing. Six women of the period--three Spanish, two Native American, and one of mixed heritage--emerge as a chorus to sing laments about the conquest, each woman representing different stakes in the confrontation between Old World and New. Their stories coalesce into a beautifully conceived, haunting depiction of a cruel time. Brad Hooper

From Kirkus Reviews
This brief but unfortunately prolix novel, the Nicaraguan-born Aguilar's first US publication, examines the European conquest of Latin America in the 16th century through the narratives of six women--Spanish, native Indian, and mestiza--variously affected by their relationships with the men who appropriated and ruled this paradisiacal ``terra firma.'' A further dimension emerges in ``Interludes'' describing the affair between two contemporary journalists, a man covering the Nicaraguan national elections (in which the Sandinista government is rejected) and a woman who's researching a book about her spiritual ``ancestors''--for which the aforementioned six narratives are core material. Aguilar's presentation of the unfamiliar feminine perspective on conquest and social transformation seems initially promising, but the women she has imagined lead lives and express emotions that are not sufficiently distinguished from one another to make us feel significant empathy with them. The novel has some minimal historical interest, but almost no human interest. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A book about women as a subject and not an object.
It is a great book. For the first time somebody writes a book about women and refers to them as a subject and not as an object as is usual in male literature. This nicaraguan novelist has given this very important women a voice and a perspective in their deeds during the first fifty years of the Spanish Conquest of the New World.