De como las muchachas Garcia perdieron el acento (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Julia Alvarez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2007

Cuando las hermanas García Carla, Sandra, Yolanda y Sofía y sus padres huyen de la República Dominicana buscando refugio de la persecución política, encuentran un nuevo hogar en los Estados Unidos. Pero el Nueva York de los años sesenta es marcadamente diferente de la vida privilegiada, aunque conflictiva, que han dejado atrás. Bajo la presión de asimilarse a una nueva cultura, las muchachas García se alisan el pelo, abandonan la lengua española y se encuentran con muchachos sin una chaperona. Pero por más que intentan distanciarse de su isla natal, las hermanas no logran desprender el mundo antiguo del nuevo.     
    
Lo que las hermanas han perdido para siempre y lo que logran encontrar se revela en esta novela magistral de una de las novelistas más celebradas de nuestros tiempos.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Sencillamente magnífica .
Los Angeles Times

Conmovedora... poderosa... hermosamente capta la experiencia del nuevo inmigrante, donde el pasado aún no es una memoria .
The New York Times Book Review
 
Tierna, encantadora... esta obra literaria viene cargada con una intensidad poética que es verdaderamente original .
Miami Herald

Sutil... poderosa... revela las complejidades de familia, del impacto de cultura y lugar, y del poder profundo de los idiomas .
The San Diego Tribune

Una interpretación lírica de una historia familiar la búsqueda de identidad del inmigrante norteamericano...relatada en un lenguaje vívido y poético .
The Philadelphia Inquirer --Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Julia Álvarez vivió su infancia en República Dominicana hasta 1960, cuando emigró a los Estados Unidos. Luego de obtener sus títulos de pregrado y postgrado en literatura y creación literaria, enseñó poesía durante muchos años y publicó su primer libro de poemas, Homecoming, en 1984. Ha recibido becas del Fondo Nacional para las Artes y de la Fundación Ingram Merrill. De cómo las muchachas García perdieron el acento recibió el premio PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles en 1991, que se entrega a obras que presentan un punto de vista multicultural. En la actualidad, enseña literatura inglesa en Middlebury College.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 9, 2007)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 1400096944
• ISBN-13: 978-1400096947
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Julia Alvarez has bridged the Americas many times. Born in New York and raised in the Dominican Republic, she is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist, author of world-renowned books in each of the genres, including How the García Girls Lost their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Something to Declare. She lives on a farmstead outside Middlebury, Vermont, with her husband Bill Eichner. Visit Julia's Web site here to find out more about her writing.

Julia and Bill own an organic coffee farm called Alta Gracia in her native country of the Dominican Republic. Their specialty coffee is grown high in the mountains on what was once depleted pastureland. Not only do they grow coffee at Alta Gracia, but they also work to bring social, environmental, spiritual, and political change for the families who work on their farm. They use the traditional methods of shad-grown coffee farming in order to protect the environment, they pay their farmers a fair and living wage, and they have a school on their farm where children and adults learn to read and write. For more information about Alta Gracia, visit their website.

Belkis Ramírez, who created the woodcuts for A Cafecito Story, is one of the most celebrated artists in the Dominican Republic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great "Latina", November 25, 2011

By 

Daphna - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: De como las muchachas Garcia perdieron el acento (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Julia Alvarez is a great writer. She "feels" the subject-matter and makes the international reader understand the conflicts of being a Latina in the USA.

5.0 out of 5 stars muy bueno, October 8, 2011

By 

John Mills - See all my reviews

This review is from: De como las muchachas Garcia perdieron el acento (Spanish Edition) (Kindle Edition)

I loved the Spanish version of this book. Often, I believe something is lost in a novel when it is translated, so I would recommend reading it in its purest form to get the most out of it. And what a lot there was to get out of this one, too! The character development, especially for Yolanda, one of the Garcia sisters, is phenomenal. The fact that the story is told from backwards chronological order only serves to make the style of the writing more complex and interesting: some of the things you wonder about at the beginning of the book are filled out for you as you reach the end. If you're looking for a fabulous story about family, or a little bit about the modern history of the dominican republic, look no further.

final verdict:
well worth your time, even if you do have to read it in english. :)