Uprooted from their family home in the Dominican Republic, the four Garcia siste
rs - Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia - arrive in New York City in 1960 to find
a life far different from the genteel existence of maids, manicures, and extend
ed family they left behind. What they have lost - and what they find - is reveal
ed in the fifteen interconnected stories that make up this exquisite novel from
one of the premier novelists of our time.
Just as it is a feature of the immigr
ant experience to always look back, the novel begins with thirty-nine-year-old Y
olanda's return to the island and moves magically backward in time to the final
days before the exile that is to transform the sisters' lives. Along the way we
witness their headlong plunge into the American mainstream. Although the girls t
ry to distance themselves from their island life by ironing their hair, forgetti
ng their Spanish, and meeting boys unchaperoned, they remain forever caught betw
een the old world and the new. With bright humor and rare insight, Julia Alvarez
vividly evokes the tensions and joys of belonging to two distinct cultures in a
novel that is utterly authentic and full of irrepressible spirit.
