A uniquely dark, coming-of-age novel rife with urban magical realism, love, and redemption, from the author of Bodega Dreams
When Julio, a teenager living in Spanish Harlem, hears that Taina, a pregnant fifteen-year-old from his high school claims to be a virgin, he decides to believe her. Julio has a history of strange visions and his blind and unrequited love for Taina will unleash a whirlpool of emotions that will bring him to question his hard-working Puerto Rican mother and his communist Ecuadorian father, his beliefs and even the building blocks of modern science (after seeing the conception of Taina’s baby as a revolution in nature).
After meeting Taína's uncle, "El Vejigante", an ex-con with a dark past, he accepts his proposal to support her during her pregnancy and becomes entangled in a web of crime that, while taking him closer to Taína, ultimately reveals a family secret that will not leave him unscathed.
“El realismo mágico latinoamericano cruza todas las fronteras y llega al barrio de Spanish Harlem: una historia de amor y de iniciación a la vida, un misterio, un enigma y, por encima de todo, un relato sobre el amor verdadero en su más amplio sentido”. --Julia Álvarez, autora de En el tiempo de las mariposas
“Taina es una ardiente búsqueda del significado de lo que elegimos creer y de las historias que nos contamos a nosotros mismos. […] La fe absoluta de esta novela en el poder del amor es algo que necesitamos oír ahora más que nunca”.--Helena Viramontes, autora de Under the Feet of Jesus
A uniquely dark, coming-of-age novel rife with urban magical realism, love, and redemption, from the author of Bodega Dreams
When Julio, a teenager living in Spanish Harlem, hears that Taina, a pregnant fifteen-year-old from his high school claims to be a virgin, he decides to believe her. Julio has a history of strange visions and his blind and unrequited love for Taina will unleash a whirlpool of emotions that will bring him to question his hard-working Puerto Rican mother and his communist Ecuadorian father, his beliefs and even the building blocks of modern science (after seeing the conception of Taina’s baby as a revolution in nature).
After meeting Taína's uncle, "El Vejigante", an ex-con with a dark past, he accepts his proposal to support her during her pregnancy and becomes entangled in a web of crime that, while taking him closer to Taína, ultimately reveals a family secret that will not leave him unscathed.
Praise
“El realismo mágico latinoamericano cruza todas las fronteras y llega al barrio de Spanish Harlem: una historia de amor y de iniciación a la vida, un misterio, un enigma y, por encima de todo, un relato sobre el amor verdadero en su más amplio sentido”. --Julia Álvarez, autora de En el tiempo de las mariposas
“Taina es una ardiente búsqueda del significado de lo que elegimos creer y de las historias que nos contamos a nosotros mismos. […] La fe absoluta de esta novela en el poder del amor es algo que necesitamos oír ahora más que nunca”.--Helena Viramontes, autora de Under the Feet of Jesus
