Fruit of the drunken tree : a novel / Ingrid Rojas Contreras.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rojas Contreras, Ingrid, author.

Contributor:

John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence--Psychological aspects.

Families.

Bogotá (Colombia)--Social life and customs--Fiction.

Bogotá (Colombia).

Families--Colombia--Bogotá--Fiction.

Violence--Psychological aspects--Fiction.

Violence.

Teenage girls--Fiction.

Teenage girls.

Sisters--Fiction.

Sisters.

Colombia--Bogotá.

Manners and customs.

Bogotá (Colombia)--Fiction.

Genre:

Fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Physical Description:

viii, 304 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First Anchor books edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2019.

Summary:

A mesmerizing debut set against the backdrop of the devastating violence of 1990's Colombia about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both. Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation. When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways. But Petrona's unusual behavior belies more than shyness. She is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls' families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal. Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricable coming-of-age stories. In lush prose, Rojas Contreras sheds light on the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation

Contents:

The photograph

The girl Petrona

Mosquita Muerta

The purgatory spot

The dead girl's shoe

Hola padre, hola madre

Fruit of the drunken tree

Galán! Galán! Galán!

Pañuelitos blancos

Safe routes

El salado

Devilwind

When at dinner you have fire

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt

God's thumb

Grand shutting down of things

Las Hermanas calle

The hills

Black and blue

The dress and the veil

Glass shards

The dream

Void after void

Rainfall

The hour of the fog

The mouth of the wolf

Ghost house

God's nail

Two fingers

The tribe whose power was forgetfulness

The list

A home for every departed thing

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

ISBN:

0525434313

9780525434313

OCLC:

1076501152