The Ladies of Managua
A Novel
ISBN10: 1250093848
ISBN13: 9781250093844
Trade Paperback
400 Pages
$28.99
CA$39.25
When Maria returns to Nicaragua for her beloved grandfather's funeral, she brings with her a mysterious package from her grandmother's past. She also carries the burden of her tense relationship with her mother, Ninexin, once a storied revolutionary, now a dedicated official in the Sandinista government. Between Maria and Ninexin lies a chasm created by the death of Maria's father, which left Maria to be raised by her grandmother Isabela while Ninexin worked to build the new Nicaragua. As Ninexin tries to reach her daughter and Maria wrestles with her turbulent relationship with an older man, Isabela becomes lost in the memories of boarding school in 1950's New Orleans, where she loved and lost almost sixty years ago. When the three women come together to bid farewell to the man who had anchored their family, they are forced to confront their complicated relationships—with one another and with their country—and to reveal the secrets that each of them has tried so hard to conceal.
Lushly evocative of Nicaragua, with its tumultuous history and its vibrant present, Eleni N. Gage 's The Ladies of Managua brings you into the lives of three strong and magnetic women as they face their past choices and discover how love can shape their futures.
Reviews
Praise for The Ladies of Managua
"From the closely chaperoned lives of schoolgirls in 1950s New Orleans, where Isabela was a student, to the explosive insurrection of 1970s and '80s Nicaragua to the sniping artistic world of 2010s New York, Gage carefully and thoughtfully explores the social demands placed on women and the repercussions of submitting to or defying them."—Kirkus Reviews
"Eleni's life experiences and academic studies combine into an extremely interesting and readable book. It's a story of Nicaragua, of family, of love, of parenting, of change and revolution and life. It's also an inherently interesting read, given those topics! I couldn't put it down—and fell in love, myself, with the characters, stories, passions and struggles. I love books that draw you in and don't let you go—such is The Ladies of Managua. Eleni brings decades of living in Nicaragua to life, and fills the book with culture, interesting people, characters that you can relate to, and a story that will stay with you a very long time. Highly recommended!"—Wandering Educators