When the Ground Turns in Its Sleep

By Sylvia Sellers-García

Book Overview

The award-winning debut novel that ?brings to mind the atmosphere and tension of Gabriel Garc a M rquez.'( Katharine Weber, author of The Little Women ) N tido Am n knows he was born in Guatemala, but he doesn't know why his family left. Raised in the States by his immigrant parents, they never talked about it. When N tido loses his father to Alzheimer's disease, his despondent mother grows increasingly silent and N tido realizes that his links to the past are disappearing. Seeking answers, N tido travels to Guatemala against his mother's wishes. Upon his arrival in the small town of R o Roto, he is mistaken for the new priest, and decides to play the part. From his parishioners, he catches tantalizing and frightening glimpses of the buried history he's aching to know. In a place shrouded in secrets, N tido is at once determined and frightened to unearth the unnamed horrors it has seen. With her elegant, hypnotic prose, this marks Sellers- Garc a's arrival as a distinctive new voice in fiction.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594483361
• ISBN13: 9781594483363
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

full of depth and history

When the ground Turns in its Sleep is masterfully written. Seller-Garcia leaves you confused and disjointed while drawing you in. Its like unwrapping a gift covered in many layers and never really understanding what it is until the last layer is removed and the gift is revealed. You are also confronted by a history that most have had no real knowledge of. This book will prompt you to seek out further understanding of the guatemalan conflict a story that will both shock and appall. I highly recommend When The Ground Turns In Its Sleep.

Be haunted and moved

This is a spare, haunting story in which everything you are told comes up for questioning. Sellers-Garcia does a masterful job of creating an unreliable narrator - an impressive feat in any novel, but even more so when he (she also does a great job of speaking in a credible male voice) speaks in such apparently straightforward, evocative prose. It's an elegant mystery story in which you are never quite sure what the mystery is. Reminiscent of "The Unconsoled", by Kazuo Ishiguro, it carries you along masterfully and stays with you long after you put it down. Very highly recommended.