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Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-57131-023-1
Pages: 304
Publish Date: Dec, 1998
Genre: Fiction
The Tree of Red Stars
BY Tessa Bridal
Magda’s childhood in the 1960s in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, is one of small pleasures: sitting beneath the poinsettia tree in her yard, meeting her friends by the banks of the Río de la Plata, and learning the rules that her culture ordains for young women of privilege. But as Magda grows up, her comfortable world becomes frightening in ways that she has never imagined it could. As her government increasingly turns on its own people in both subtle and overt acts of terror, Magda’s family and friends come under threat.
"A story that must be told, and Tessa Bridal recounts it with clarity." —Sandra Benítez
Sent to the United States for a year of school, Magda realizes how her own passivity has contributed to the fear that now grips her country. The events she experiences after her return to Montevideo give her the courage to join the underground struggle against the government—a fateful decision that draws not only her, but all those around her, into unexpected danger.
Full of rich detail, moving characterizations, and political intrigue, The Tree of the Doves is both a tender story of love and friendship and a terrifying, personal look at a country—and a way of life—under siege. Tessa Bridal’s debut novel provides readers with a vivid, unforgettable journey through a time and a world that is closer than we realize.
“Suffused with the poignancy of a memorial to lost lives, this debut novel . . . is an unblinking exploration of the way absolute power can destroy civilized existence. . . . Bridal's understated prose permits large moments to occur without melodrama, and small ones to build into potent revelations.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Tessa Bridal brings a fresh voice to Latin American literature. . . . Bridal recounts Magda's perilous activities with a chillingly understated sense of prose.”
—New York Times Book Review“This evocative novel is a moving account of a girl's coming-of-age and awakening political consciousness.”
—Booklist (Editor's Choice '97)“The finest of this season's regional books is this first novel by Tessa Bridal . . . notable in not being yet another product of a creative writing program, Bridal commands a style that is fresh yet restrained.”
—Minnesota Monthly“A skillful, utterly engrossing portrait . . . The Tree of Red Stars is an unpredicatable and exquisite story, its descriptions of endangered freedom and mental torture all the more chilling when one remembers its author, who now lives in Minnesota, grew up under the same circumstances as her protagonist.”
—TimeOut New York
