The Line of the Sun - Tapa blanda

Remarkable . . . Cofer is a fine storyteller. Her prose conveys all the energy and mystery of anticipation. --Women's Review of Books A remarkable story, written from the heart as only the best stories are. --St. Louis Post-Dispatch Poetry . . . what distinguishes the book finally are the images, the phrases, the simple scenes that catch the ear like a sparkle catches the eye. --Washington Times The writing in this superb novel stuns and surprises at every turn. Its sensuality and imagery . . . are riveting. --San Juan Star The Line of the Sun reads like a dream, from the beautifully realized description of the deceptive Paradise Lost, to the utterly different but equally vivid world of the urban North. . . . This is a splendid first novel. --The State (Columbia, SC) In this extraordinary first novel, Judith Ortiz Cofer bridges two cultures, giving voice to people who are seldom heard from. . . . Cofer invites us into a climate where the settings are authentic and richly textured, and whose lives bound in cultural mythology are particularized through the strengths and gifts of language, fully realized characters, and a multi-dimensional narrative. There is great strength in the way Cofer evokes the fierce, loving, and brave Latin spirit that is the novel's real theme. --Joyce Johnson Cofer . . . reveals herself to be a prose writer of evocatively lyrical authority, a novelist of historical compass and sensitivity. . . . One recognizes in the rich weave and vigorous elegance of the language of The Line of the Sun a writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important story to tell. --New York Times Book Review

Set in the 1950s and 1960s, The Line of the Sun moves from a rural Puerto Rican village to a tough immigrant housing project in New Jersey, telling the story of a Hispanic family's struggle to become part of a new culture without relinquishing the old. At the story's center is Guzm n, an almost mythic figure whose adventures and exile, salvation and return leave him a broken man but preserve his place in the heart and imagination of his niece, who is his secret biographer.