Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias (Hardcover)

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Fiction – Literary – Family Saga\nRELEASE DATE: 9\/19\/2023(WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER’S WAREHOUSE)\nA lush and lyrical debut novel about a Costa Rican family wrestling with a deadly secret, from rising literary star John Manuel Arias\nCosta Rica, 1968.When a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Companys most lucrative banana plantation burning all evidence of a massive cover-up, the future of Teresa Cepeda Valverdes family is changed forever.Now, twenty-seven years later, Teresa and her daughter Lyra are still picking up the pieces. Lyra wants nothing to do with Teresa, but is desperate to find out what happened to her family that fateful night. Teresa, haunted by a missing husband and the bitter ghost of her mother, Amarga, is unable to reconcile the past. What unfolds is a story of a mother and daughter trying to forgive what they do not yet understand, and the mystery at the heart of one familys rupture, steeped in machismo, jealousy, labor uprisings, and the havoc wreaked by banana plantations in Central America.Brimming with ancestral spirits, omens, and the anthropomorphic forces of nature, John Manuel Arias weaves a brilliant tapestry of love, loss, secrets, and redemption.\nAUTHOR BIO:\nJohn Manuel Arias is a queer, Costa Rican American poet and writer. He is a Canto Mundo fellow amp; alumnus of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop. His prose and poetry have been published inPANK, The Rumpus, F(r)iction, Joyland Magazine,and Akashic Books. He has lived in Washington D.C., Brooklyn New York, and in San Jos, Costa Rica with his grandmother and four ghosts.Where There Was Fireis his debut novel.\n\”Where There Was Fireheralds the arrival of an astounding imagination and an unforgettable new voice.John Manuel Arias weaves an ambitious story that exposes the costs of corporate greed while revealing the power of personal agency and the enduring bonds of family.This is a book youll want to read again and again.Cleyvis Natera,author ofNeruda on the Park\”A haunting, operatic saga of family, history and place.Where There Was Firebeautifully braids love, lust, magic and the destructive power of man to wondrous and, at times, heartbreaking effect. Arias has createdan utterly original, unforgettable tale of family that will sear a place in the reader’s soul.Xochitl Gonzalez, bestselling author ofOlga Dies Dreaming\”Where There WasFirereads as if enchanted by the spirit of an ancient and generous storyteller. How privileged we are to read of this memorable family! It isan astonishing debut novel, written in prose so atmospheric and poetic that I gasped too many times to count.Where There Was Firequite literallytook my breath away.\”Kali Fajardo-Anstine, ABA winner and bestselling author ofWoman of LightandSabrina amp; Corina