Tarnished Beauty
A Novel
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Jamilet is a beautiful young woman marred by a shockingly gruesome birthmark. It spills over her back and down her legs, twisting and writhing like a hideous cape of blood, causing her to be shunned by the villagers of her rural Mexican town. In search of medical salvation, this angel with the devil's mark is finally driven to escape north and cross the border illegally to Los Angeles.
After acquiring false documents, Jamilet finds work at a mental hospital, where she is assigned to look after Señor Peregrino, an elderly man from Spain who is as disagreeable as he is mysterious. Jamilet is given strict orders to keep her distance, but when he cleverly snags possession of her papers, he bargains to return them upon the condition that she listen to his story. Jamilet begrudgingly agrees, and Señor Peregrino takes her back to the days of his youth, when he embarked upon a mystical and romantic journey along the legendary Road to Santiago in Spain.
Jamilet and Señor Peregrino forge a spiritual bond that is more healing to them both than modern medicine could ever be. In an inspiring story of redemption, faith and the enduring power of love, Samartin offers an enlightening perspective on the true meaning of beauty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two travelers from different corners of the world discover that they have more in common than meets the eye in Samartin's smart second novel (after Broken Paradise). Shunned by her small Mexican village for a birthmark (it covers her back and legs) considered to be the work of the devil, Jamilet Ju rez sneaks across the border to live with her aunt in Los Angeles, where she plans on saving up enough money to pay for the birthmark's removal. Once in L.A., Jamilet scores illegal papers and takes a job in a mental hospital supervising the cunning and cantankerous Se or Peregrino, who, in short order, snatches Jamilet's forged papers and ransoms them. The price: she has to listen to his stories. As the old man reminisces about his adventurous pilgrimage to the landmark Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Jamilet tries to forge a life independent of the mark that once defined her. Samartin is at her best when it comes to matters of the heart, portraying the anguish of lost love and the thrill of a young woman's first crush with the same dexterity. A few story elements are left dangling, and the ending is abrupt for such an ambitiously assembled tale, but Samartin's rich storytelling overpowers the faults.
