The Distant Marvels

Description

Maria Sirena tells stories. She does it for money - she was a favourite in the cigar factory where she worked as a lectora - and for love, spinning gossamer tales out of her own past for the benefit of friends, neighbours and family. But now, like a modern-day Scheherazade, she will be asked to tell one last story so that eight women can keep hope, and themselves, alive as a deadly hurricane hits Cuba. The women are trapped together, and so Maria begins to tell the story of her childhood during Cuba's Third War of Independence.

Author description

Chantel Acevedo was born in Miami to Cuban parents. She is the author of "A Falling Star" (Carolina Wren Press, 2014), winner of the Doris Bakwin Award; and, "Love and Ghost Letters" (St. Martins, 2006), winner of the Latino International Book Award. She is currently an Associate Professor of English at Auburn University, Alabama, where she founded the Auburn Writers Conference and edits the "Southern Humanities Review."