BWB REMEMBERS THE BOOKS OF OUR CHILDHOOD (3 OF 3)
The third and final part in our Children’s Book Week series on the books that BWB employees remember from their childhood. Don’t forget...
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It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo 's dictatorship. It doesn t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas The Butterflies.
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters Minerva, Patria, Mar a Teresa, and the survivor, Ded speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo 's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez 's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human cost of political oppression.
This book is ripe for discussion, so please feel free to download the discussion guide from The Big Read.
Also be sure to check out the book club blog to participate in the discussion with other BWB readers!