Sweet Diamond Dust: And Other Stories - Tapa blanda

"Lyrically voices the generation-bridging tale of the De La Valle family and their Puerto Rican sugar mill through the eyes and souls of several family members, longtime servants and dear friends... With a majestic plot, nestled in the hills of those Guamani Mountains, along with the De La Valle family and their sugar mill, Ferre exposes the secrets of a family and the glories of a country under pressure from American business threats. All at once, Sweet Diamond Dust explores the life of a family and of a business, through the generations and into our modern world."--Lucy Stark, Voices from the Gaps "[Ferre] is a perfect embodiment of the Janus-like identity Puerto Rico emanates today, a mythical creature with two heads set back to back, impossibly 'loyal to two fatherlands, ' as the memorialist Bernardo Vega once put it."--Ilan Stavans, World Literature Today -Lyrically voices the generation-bridging tale of the De La Valle family and their Puerto Rican sugar mill through the eyes and souls of several family members, longtime servants and dear friends... With a majestic plot, nestled in the hills of those Guamani Mountains, along with the De La Valle family and their sugar mill, Ferre exposes the secrets of a family and the glories of a country under pressure from American business threats. All at once, Sweet Diamond Dust explores the life of a family and of a business, through the generations and into our modern world.---Lucy Stark, Voices from the Gaps -[Ferre] is a perfect embodiment of the Janus-like identity Puerto Rico emanates today, a mythical creature with two heads set back to back, impossibly 'loyal to two fatherlands, ' as the memorialist Bernardo Vega once put it.---Ilan Stavans, World Literature Today Lyrically voices the generation-bridging tale of the De La Valle family and their Puerto Rican sugar mill through the eyes and souls of several family members, longtime servants and dear friends With a majestic plot, nestled in the hills of those Guamani Mountains, along with the De La Valle family and their sugar mill, Ferre exposes the secrets of a family and the glories of a country under pressure from American business threats. All at once, Sweet Diamond Dust explores the life of a family and of a business, through the generations and into our modern world. Lucy Stark, Voices from the Gaps [Ferre] is a perfect embodiment of the Janus-like identity Puerto Rico emanates today, a mythical creature with two heads set back to back, impossibly loyal to two fatherlands, as the memorialist Bernardo Vega once put it. Ilan Stavans, World Literature Today"

Originally published in Spanish under the title "Maldito amor" ( "Cursed Love" ), Rosario Ferre's "Sweet Diamond Dust" introduced American readers to a voice that is by turns lyrical and wickedly satiric. A finalist for the National Book Award with her 1995 novel, "The House on the Lagoon," Ferre here uses family history as a metaphor for the class struggles and political evolution of Latin America and Puerto Rico in particular. The result is writing of the highest order provocative, profound, yet delightfully readable.