Luz Gabás

I've had this book for a while, it was one of my Kindle Firsts from the beginning of the year but it was so long of an audiobook that I procrastinated. I thought of it again when I was looking for another audiobook for Women in Translation Month. Having the rest of the month to finish all 20 hours of listening didn't seem so daunting anymore. Yep, 20 HOURS. It was a good book and worth the read.

Palm Trees in the Snow covers quite a few issues as it moves through the story. There is the good show more and bad of colonization, scenes in Spain and the island of Bioko, love, unrequited love, brotherly love, interracial relationships in different periods, conflicts over independence, rape, and so much more. It does a great job of representing the conflict between what people believed they were doing when they colonized others forms of civilization and what was really going on. The story does center quite a bit on the white people who colonized the island during the fifties, but there is respect given to that colonizing was not actually the best thing for the inhabitants of the island. To me, it really humanized both sides without casting judgement on either. I particularly love books that do that, not because I think of oppressors as innocent, but I like it when authors let me see it for myself.

I hesitate to rate it higher, despite all the issues it deals well with, because the story itself wasn't unexpected nor did it give some new insight into what colonization was about. It was a good story that I enjoyed reading. I loved the twists and turns and that made me doubt where it was going, but it pretty much went where I expected it too. The time jumps were a big part of the fun between Clarence's investigation into her family's history and hearing the firsthand account of Kilian. As mentioned above, I listened to the audiobook which had two narrators to accommodate the two point of view characters. They were Angela Dawe and Malcolm Hillgartner. show less

El fatídico día en el que Attua tuvo que ocupar el lugar de su padre supo que su prometedor futuro se había truncado. Ahora debía regentar las termas que habían sido el sustento de su familia, en una tierra fronteriza a la que él nunca hubiera elegido regresar. Junto al suyo, también se frustró el deseo de Cristela, quien anhelaba una vida a su lado y, además, alejarse de su insoportable rutina en un entorno hostil. Un nuevo revés del destino pondrá a prueba el irrefrenable amor show more entre ellos; y así, entre malentendidos y obligaciones, decisiones y obsesiones, traiciones y lealtades, Luz Gabás teje una bella historia de amor, honor y superación.Los convulsos años de mediados del siglo xix, entre guerras carlistas y revoluciones; la construcción de un sueño en las indomables montañas que separan Francia y España; y una historia de amor que traspasa todas las barreras. Una novela escrita con el apasionante pulso narrativo de la autora de Palmeras en la nieve. show less

Lejos de Luisiana
Luz Gabás
Publicado: 2022 | 579 páginas
Novela Histórico

Después de años de colonización, la familia Girard acepta la controvertida decisión de su país, Francia, de ceder a España en 1763 parte de las indómitas tierras del Misisipi; sin embargo, sufrirá las consecuencias de las rebeliones de sus compatriotas contra los españoles, la guerra de norteamericanos contra ingleses por la independencia de los Estados Unidos y la lucha desesperada de los nativos indios por show more la supervivencia de sus pueblos. En unos tiempos tan convulsos, Suzette Girard e Ishcate, indio de la tribu kaskaskia, librarán su propia batalla: preservar su amor de las amenazas del mundo que les ha tocado vivir. Todo ello conforma una novela cautivadora y monumental que atraviesa las cuatro décadas en las que España poseyó las legendarias tierras de Luisiana.Lejos de Luisiana, ganadora del Premio Planeta 2022, es una novela magistral y un gran fresco histórico sobre la aventura de España en el corazón de Norteamérica. show less

Es uno de estos libros que se quedan dentro de tí.