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Title details for Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras - Available

Fruit of the Drunken Tree

A Novel

by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Marisol Ramirez
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
“One of the most dazzling and devastating novels I’ve read in a long time...Readers of Fruit of the Drunken Tree will surely be transformed.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Simultaneously propulsive and poetic, reminiscent of Isabel Allende...Listen to this new author’s voice — she has something powerful to say.”
—Entertainment Weekly

A mesmerizing debut set in Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent reign 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 inextricably linked coming-of-age stories. In lush prose, Rojas Contreras has written a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 31, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780525632641
      • File size: 358196 KB
      • Duration: 12:26:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 890
    • Text Difficulty: 4-5

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 21, 2018
      Rojas Contreras packs her coming-of-age debut full of details about life in early 1990s Colombia during the last year of Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror. Seven-year-old Chula’s sheltered life in a gated community with her mother and older sister Cassandra cracks open with the arrival of 13-year-old maid Petrona. Petrona comes from a nearby shanty town and fascinates the implausibly precocious Chula, whose greatest excitements are spying on the richest lady in their neighborhood and hunting ghosts. Chula’s formidable mother, Alma, grew up in a slum and copes with standoffish and judgmental well-heeled neighbors while her husband works in the oil fields. The family temporarily flees to Alma’s home village to escape Bogotá’s escalating violence, while Chula and Petrona get drawn into a situation that will eventually pose a dire threat. Chula’s fixation on the news allows smooth introduction of the historical events surrounding Colombia’s instability and Escobar’s eventual death. The skeletal chapters from Petrona’s perspective provide some belated explanations for the danger she exposed the family to. This striking novel offers an atmospheric journey into the narrow choices for even a wealthy family as society crumbles around them.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrators Marisol Ramirez and Almarie Guerra team up to deliver this story of how 7-year-old Chula and her family's 15-year-old maid, Petrona, forge an unlikely bond as each struggles to find stability and safety in the waning years of Pablo Escobar's violent hold on Colombia. Early on, Ramirez infuses Chula's irrepressible curiosity and intelligence with na�vet�; whereas, Guerra highlights Petrona's hopefulness, buried under the weight of her familial responsibilities. As the audiobook progresses, the narrators adapt their delivery to reflect the escalating fear and violence that surround the girls--one sheltered, one world-weary--as they realize they can't escape their country's woes. This dual coming-of-age story, inspired by author Roja Contreras's own observations, shows how the effects of a guerilla drug culture touch everyone, even children. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:890
  • Text Difficulty:4-5

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