AUGUST BOOK OF THE MONTH: THE TASTE OF SUGAR BY MARISEL VERA

 

The Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club 

is proud to announce its selection for August's Book of the Month.

 

  

THE TASTE OF SUGAR

by Marisel Vera

W.W. Norton & Co.

 

 “A family saga set against the backdrop of Puerto Rico in the late 1800s, THE TASTE OF SUGAR plunges us into a world where people who are struggling with profound poverty, abuse and discrimination manage to preserve their hopes, dignity, grace and the familial love that holds them together. Marisel Vera’s novel is a real contribution to the literature about the immigrant experience of yesterday―and today.”      - María Amparo Escandón, author of Esperanza’s Box of Saints and González and Daughter Trucking Co. 

 

SUMMARY:   It is 1898, and groups of starving Puerto Ricans, los hambrientos, roam the parched countryside and dusty towns begging for food. Under the yoke of Spanish oppression, the Caribbean island is forced to prepare to wage war with the United States. Up in the mountainous coffee region of Utuado, Vicente Vega and Valentina Sanchez labor to keep their small farm from the creditors. When the Spanish-American War and the great San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899 bring devastating upheaval, the young couple is lured, along with thousands of other puertorriquenos, to the sugar plantations of Hawaii—another US territory—where they are confronted by the hollowness of America’s promises of prosperity.  

  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:   A proud Boricua, Marisel Vera is the author of IF I BRING YOU ROSES, and the two-time winner of Willow Review’s fiction prize. Visit her at: https://mariselverawriter.wordpress.com/

 

Get your copy today from Las Comadres & Friends Book Club Book Shop.  Here is our link:   https://bookshop.org/shop/lascomadresbookclub.   Happy Reading.

 #READLATINOLIT