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Along with Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alvarez,
Esmeralda Santiago has emerged as one of today's preeminent
Latina authors. Legions of fans have waited five long years
for the next chapter of the story begun in her memoirs When
I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman. And now the wait is
over.
In The Turkish Lover, Esmeralda finally
breaks out of a monumental struggle with her powerful mother-only
to come under the
thrall of "the Turk" and discover that romantic
passion, too, can become a prison. Esmeralda's journey of
self-liberation and self-discovery is a daring one, candidly
and zestfully recounted, and leads, most improbably, to her
triumphant graduation from Harvard. (Her view of that venerable
institution is an eye opener, told as only a brilliant writer
totally outside the mold can tell it.) The expansive humanity,
earthy humor, and psychological courage that made Esmeralda's
first two books so successful are on full display again in
The Turkish Lover, which will both reward the author's faithful
readership and extend it. Hers is a fresh, exciting, and
necessary voice.
A Merloyd Lawrence Book
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