Praise for THE COUNTRY UNDER MY SKIN — :
“A poetic, penetrating and revelatory tale of love and war, literature and politics. . .lyrical, dramatic and incisive, Belli’s soulful self-portrait and paean to her beautiful, beleagured country is at once timely and timeless, tragic and life-affirming.” — The Chicago Tribune
“Love and revolution have rarely been so splendidly and provocatively intertwined than in this heretic memoir of a woman’s sensual and intellectual voyage of self-discovery in Nicaragua.” — Ariel Dorfman
“Gioconda Belli’s memoir reads better than a novel. It recounts her larger-than-life experiences as a revolutionary, lover, and mother with honesty, passion, intelligence and, above all, poetry. The Country Under My Skin is as much the story of Nicaragua as it is one extraordinary woman’s dreams.” — Cristina Garcia
“Unravels [the] contradictions. . .all too common among powerful women–with characteristic candor and dignity. . .Often joyous, surprisingly fluid.” — Salon
“Engaging. . .When Belli speaks from the depths of her woman’s insight. . . her prose pierces the heart. . .A window to one woman’s extraordinary journey.” — San Antonio Express-News
“A surprisingly frank picture of the movement. . .Belli presents a complex picture, revealing the ego clashes and massive blunders as well as moments of incredible bravery under fire.” — Los Angeles Magazine
“Belli recalls with engaging candor the course of a life lived to the full. In its twist and turns, moments of danger followed by intense romantic encounters, Belli’s memoir can resemble exuberant historical fiction. . A luminously written, always insightful account of one woman’s encounter with personal and political liberation.” — Kirkus Reviews
“A lush memoir.…both intensely personal and informatively political.…An honest, insider’s account of the very real debates surrounding this major revolution would be valuable in itself, but Belli offers more: a frank examination of her struggle for love.” — Publishers Weekly
“A tribute to beauty, valor, and justice. Belli’s giving and clarion book is also an antidote to fear and apathy, and a reminder that freedom is always a work in progress.” — Booklist
“Romantic and engaging.” — Philadelphia City Paper
Praise for SCROLL OF SEDUCTION — Praise for SCROLL OF SEDUCTION
“…rigorously imagined and sumptuously presented…” — Booklist
“…A lush novel that draws in equal measure on history and human passion, The Scroll of Seduction bears a passing resemblance to Jane Eyre, Like Water for Chocolate and The Historian.” — Los Angeles Times
“Lush...Belli’s rich prose provides fascinating insight into Juana’s life...” — Tu Vida Magazine
“…A fascinating account… richly told...a feel similar to Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.” — Library Journal
“Exceedingly clever and powerful, this passion-filled mystery of love and jealousy, of beauty and madness, unravels as the suspense builds to a page-turning frenzy that leaves us wanting to keep reading beyond the back cover.” — María Amparo Escandón, author of Esperanza’s Box of Saints and González & Daughter Trucking Co.
“In Belli’s story-within-a-story, expertly translated by Lisa Dillman, a historian uses Juana’s saga to seduce a 16 year old orphan at a Madrid boarding school...the novel gallops along. A-” — Entertainment Weekly
“The Scroll of Seduction engages the reader on multiple levels…an intelligent work of fiction.” — Daily News
Engaging. . .When Belli speaks from the depths of her woman’s insight. . . her prose pierces the heart. . .A window to one woman’s extraordinary journey.
A poetic, penetrating and revelatory tale of love and war, literature and politics. . .lyrical, dramatic and incisive, Belli’s soulful self-portrait and paean to her beautiful, beleagured country is at once timely and timeless, tragic and life-affirming.
Love and revolution have rarely been so splendidly and provocatively intertwined than in this heretic memoir of a woman’s sensual and intellectual voyage of self-discovery in Nicaragua.
A tribute to beauty, valor, and justice. Belli’s giving and clarion book is also an antidote to fear and apathy, and a reminder that freedom is always a work in progress.
Gioconda Belli’s memoir reads better than a novel. It recounts her larger-than-life experiences as a revolutionary, lover, and mother with honesty, passion, intelligence and, above all, poetry. The Country Under My Skin is as much the story of Nicaragua as it is one extraordinary woman’s dreams.
A surprisingly frank picture of the movement. . .Belli presents a complex picture, revealing the ego clashes and massive blunders as well as moments of incredible bravery under fire.
Unravels [the] contradictions. . .all too common among powerful women–with characteristic candor and dignity. . .Often joyous, surprisingly fluid.
A tribute to beauty, valor, and justice. Belli’s giving and clarion book is also an antidote to fear and apathy, and a reminder that freedom is always a work in progress.
Lush...Belli’s rich prose provides fascinating insight into Juana’s life...
Exceedingly clever and powerful, this passion-filled mystery of love and jealousy, of beauty and madness, unravels as the suspense builds to a page-turning frenzy that leaves us wanting to keep reading beyond the back cover.
Praise for SCROLL OF SEDUCTION
Praise for SCROLL OF SEDUCTION
In Belli’s story-within-a-story, expertly translated by Lisa Dillman, a historian uses Juana’s saga to seduce a 16 year old orphan at a Madrid boarding school...the novel gallops along. A-
…A lush novel that draws in equal measure on history and human passion, The Scroll of Seduction bears a passing resemblance to Jane Eyre, Like Water for Chocolate and The Historian.
The Scroll of Seduction engages the reader on multiple levels…an intelligent work of fiction.
Romantic and engaging.
…A lush novel that draws in equal measure on history and human passion, The Scroll of Seduction bears a passing resemblance to Jane Eyre, Like Water for Chocolate and The Historian.
Exceedingly clever and powerful, this passion-filled mystery of love and jealousy, of beauty and madness, unravels as the suspense builds to a page-turning frenzy that leaves us wanting to keep reading beyond the back cover.
Love and revolution have rarely been so splendidly and provocatively intertwined than in this heretic memoir of a woman’s sensual and intellectual voyage of self-discovery in Nicaragua.
"Exceedingly clever and powerful, this passion-filled mystery of love and jealousy, of beauty and madness, unravels as the suspense builds to a page-turning frenzy that leaves us wanting to keep reading beyond the back cover."
★ 10/01/2014
How crazy was Juana La Loca, the Spanish queen who allegedly would not stop kissing her husband, Philippe the Handsome, even after he died? A Madrid professor enlists the help of a student and a silk dress to find out in the latest from Nicaraguan poet-memoirist-novelist Belli (The Country Under My Skin). While touring the Escorial, 17-year-old Lucia, a Latin American-born orphan attending a Madrid Catholic boarding school, meets Manuel, a 40-something professor who draws Lucia into his obsession with 16th-century Juana. Soon, Manuel dresses Lucia like Juana, and, as he seduces (and eventually impregnates) her, she channels Juana's spirit, allowing Belli to create in sensuous detail a turbulent, emotion-driven version of events that is at odds with historians' accounts of Juana's schizophrenia. Juana, as Belli depicts her, was a passionate woman who fell victim to power-hungry relatives, and whose eccentric behavior may have been symptoms of bipolar disorder. (As Belli explains in an author's note, "any woman with a strong sense of self, confronted by the abuse and the arbitrary injustices she had to withstand, forced to accept her powerlessness in the face of an authoritarian system, would become depressed.") Belli's insights into Spanish culture prove provocative, aided by Dillman's faultless translation. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Nicaraguan poet, novelist and memoirist Belli (The Country Under My Skin , 2002, etc.) offers a beguiling feminist take on the frustrated life of a 15th-century Spanish queen. The tortuous saga of Juana of Castile, daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, who spent 46 years of her life locked away as a madwoman, is evoked through an illicit modern-day love affair. Now 17, Luc'a has been a student at a Madrid boarding school for four years, since her Latin American parents died in a plane crash. Much older Manuel, a professor specializing in the Spanish Renaissance, is obsessed with Juana's story and much taken by Luc'a because she looks remarkably like the queen. Manuel seduces the willing virgin by dressing her in a period costume and mesmerizing her with a longwinded narration of Juana's life: Beginning with her birth in 1479, the tale takes a dark turn with Juana's passionate marriage at age 16 to Philippe the Handsome, Archduke of Burgundy, whose ties to the Hapsburg line are politically desirable but later disastrous. The novel moves fluidly between the Renaissance and the present, with both stories narrated in the first person, as if Luc'a is indeed possessed by Juana. The Spanish princess bears many children for Philippe and overlooks his infidelities while she grows increasingly isolated living away from her family. After a series of unexpected deaths, Juana is in line for succession as queen of Castile but is thwarted and imprisoned through the machinations of her husband, father and son (who became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). In the present, young Luc'a becomes pregnant and is ensconced in Manuel's childhood home, where his Aunt Agueda watches over her. Also surveying Luc'aare the ghosts of Manuel's ancestors, the Denias, who were appointed to guard Juana but ended up looting her effects. Belli's historical savvy and skillful use of novelistic devices render these intertwined tales powerfully compelling. An intricate, sexy historical narrative, exploring the triumph of individual will over masculine coercion.
