Fruit of the Drunken Tree

By Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Book Overview

"One of the most dazzling and devastating novels I've read in a long time...Readers of Fruit of the Drunken Tree will surely be transformed."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Simultaneously propulsive and poetic, reminiscent of Isabel Allende...Listen to this new author's voice -- she has something powerful to say."
--Entertainment Weekly

A mesmerizing debut set in Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent reign about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both

Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogot , but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation.
When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways. But Petrona's unusual behavior belies more than shyness. She is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls' families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal.
Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricably linked coming-of-age stories. In lush prose, Rojas Contreras has written a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385542720
• ISBN13: 9780385542722
• Release Date: July 2018
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Follow two young sisters through the tortuous political upheaval so common in South America.

I don't know why I picked this book - maybe I just liked the title - but I lived in South America for a year, and although did not have to experience the horrors that beset these brave children - I was familiar with the customs and protocols that surround that region of the world. Starting out as upper class, protected scions of a powerful man, their situation slowly dissolves due to the political upheaval that encompasses their country. You share their fear and confusion as they have to leave their elegant home for the countryside and an entirely different manner of living. The undercurrents of clashing class values and the steady hum of danger are omnipresent. This is a good work for anyone interested in the complexities of wealth and politics and how these effect the most innocent within the society.