Reinbou
A Novel
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
"Reinbou is a gem [and] I feel as if I’ve found a treasure at the end of a reader’s rainbow." —Julia Alvarez, author of The Cemetery of Untold Stories and the international bestseller In the Time of the Butterflies
"Cabiya evokes the Dominican Republic’s heat and passion with frank and poetic prose and the excitement of a spy thriller. This is teeming with life." —Publishers Weekly
In the Time of the Butterflies meets Woman of Light in this propulsive work of historical fiction about U.S. intervention and corruption in the Dominican Republic.
The basis of the 2017 film adaptation by Andrés Curbelo and David Maler.
In 1976 Santo Domingo, Ángel Maceta uncovers the real story behind the murder of his father, Puro Maceta, ten years prior. In the process, events that unfolded during and after the war are revealed, unleashing a series of small revolutions in his community that in turn unravel other intrigues of what really took place during the Civil War of 1965.
Weaving together the brutal realities of war with the innocence of childhood imagination, Reinbou explores this era in Dominican society, a time when the U.S. sent Marines into the country to back a coup against Juan Bosch, the first democratically elected president of the Dominican Republic since the end of the brutal, three-decade-long dictatorship of the genocidal Rafael Trujillo. Moving between 1965 and 1976, we follow the revolutionary efforts of Puro and the transformative, feverish adventures of Ángel.
Told through the eyes of a child and a varied cast of friends, family, and neighbors, Reinbou explores the consequences of political and societal upheaval, corruption, and violence in modern Dominican society.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The dense and exciting latest from Cabiya (Wicked Weeds) delves into the Dominican Republic's 1965 civil war and its aftermath. The narrative toggles between 1965, when U.S. Marine commander Julius Horton and local politician Molina torture and entrap their revolutionary adversaries Puro and Oviedo, and 1976, when 10-year-old Angel Maceta, who lives in a shack with his mother Imna, twin aunts, and baby brother, discovers the truth about the death of his father, a hero of the opposition. A suitcase full of gold stolen by the rebels provides the central conflict in 1965, when a Marine interrogates Oviedo in hopes of finding its whereabouts. In 1976, Angel discovers magical items in the trash, such as a black vinyl disk that morphs into a record collection and a steel ring that turns into a basketball hoop. For the characters, each day is a struggle against abuses committed by the country's dictatorship, such as maiming, rape, and torture, but the secret magic unearthed by Angel provides hope (thanks to the steel ring, one neighbor goes on to become a basketball star). Cabiya evokes the Dominican Republic's heat and passion with frank and poetic prose and the excitement of a spy thriller. This is teeming with life.