Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea

Trade Paper – $18.95
ISBN 978-1-931896-41-2Contributors
Publication Date
September 2007
Categories
Page Count
320 pages
Trim Size
5.4 x 8.5
ISBN
1-931896-41-0
Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea
León, Nicaragua, 1907. During a tribute he delivers during his triumphal return to his native city, Rubén Darío writes on the fan of a little girl one of his most famous poems, "Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea."
In 1956 in a cafe in León, a group of literati gather, dedicated, among other things, to the rigorous reconstruction of the legend surrounding Darío—but also to conspire. There will be an attempt against dictator Somoza's life, and that little girl with the fan a half-century before will not be a disinterested party.
In Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea, Sergio Ramírez encompasses, in a complete metaphor of reality and legend, the entire history of his country. The narrative moves along paths fifty years apart, which inevitably converge. The story becomes a fascinating exercise on the power of memory, on the influence of the past, fictitious or not, in the finality of reality.
Reviews
"Sergio Ramírez has taken the best ingredients of Nicaraguan history—dictatorship and poetry, madness and love, conspiracies and con-men—and cooked them into a masterpiece that will thrill English-language readers as it has those of us who have read Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea in Spanish." —Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden
"Using brilliant language, Ramírez interweaves myth and reality to enrich the plot of this fascinating novel." —Claribel Alegría, author of Sorrow, and co-author of Death of Somoza
"A total novel about the secret mysteries of science, of poetry, and of dictatorships. the beauties of Rubén Darío and the horrors of Somoza intertwine in an unforgettable and absorbing story." —Thomás Eloy Martinez