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In her most ambitious work since In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez tells the story of a woman whose poetry inspired one Caribbean revolution and of her daughter whose dedication to teaching strengthened another. Camila Henr�quez Ure�a is about to retire from her longtime job teaching Spanish at Vassar College. Only now as she sorts through family papers does she begin to know the woman behind the legend of her mother, the revered Salom� Ure�a, who died when Camila was three. In stark contrast to Salom�, who became the Dominican Republic's national poet at the age of seventeen, Camila has spent most of her life trying not to offend anybody. Her mother dedicated her life to educating young women to give them voice in their turbulent new nation; Camila has spent her life quietly and anonymously teaching the Spanish pluperfect to upper-class American girls with no notion of revolution, no knowledge of Salom� Ure�a. Now, in 1960, Camila must choose a final destination for herself. Where will she spend the rest of her days? News of the revolution in Cuba mirrors her own internal upheaval. In the process of deciding her future, Camila uncovers the truth of her mother's tragic personal life and, finally, finds a place for her own passion and commitment. Julia Alvarez has won a large and devoted audience by brilliantly illuminating the history of modern Caribbean America through the personal stories of its people. As a Latina, as a poet and novelist, and as a university professor, Julia Alvarez brings her own experience to this exquisite story.

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Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic before immigrating to the United States at the age of ten. She now lives in Vermont, where she is a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College, Vermont. Julia �lvarez vivi� su infancia en Rep�blica Dominicana hasta 1960, cuando emigr� a los Estados Unidos. Luego de obtener sus t�tulos de pregrado y postgrado en literatura y creaci�n literaria, ense�� poes�a durante muchos a�os y public� su primer libro de poemas, Homecoming, en 1984. Ha recibido becas del Fondo Nacional para las Artes y de la Fundaci�n Ingram Merrill. De c�mo las muchachas Garc�a perdieron el acento recibi� el premio PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles en 1991, que se entrega a obras que presentan un punto de vista multicultural. En la actualidad, ense�a literatura inglesa en Middlebury College. Alma Cuervo is an Earphones Award-winning narrator and a stage actress and singer who has also performed in film and television. She holds an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, from which she graduated in 1976 alongside Meryl Streep. She starred in the role of Madame Morrible in the first national tour of Wicked.

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