Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea

by Sergio Ramírez, Michael B. Miller (Translator)

Overview

León, Nicaragua, 1907. During a tribute he delivers during his triumphal return to his native city, Rubén Darío writes on the fan of a little girl one of his most famous poems, "Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea."

In 1956 in a cafe in León, a group of literati gather, dedicated, among other things, to the rigorous reconstruction of the legend surrounding Darío—but also to conspire. There will be an attempt against dictator Somoza's life, and that little girl with the fan a half-century before will not be a disinterested party.

In Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea, Sergio Ramírez encompasses, in a complete metaphor of reality and legend, the entire history of his country. The narrative moves along paths fifty years apart, which inevitably converge. The story becomes a fascinating exercise on the power of memory, on the influence of the past, fictitious or not, in the finality of reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931896412
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sergio Ramírez is a leading Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who served in the Junta of National Reconstruction and as vice president of the country from 1984 until 1990. He is the author of over thirty books and is the recipient of numerous honors, including the L'Ordre du Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France.

Michael B. Miller, former professor of Spanish and Latin American literatures, holds a PhD from George Washington University. He has translated numerous works from Spanish, including A Place Called Milagro de la Paz by Manlio Argueta.

Editorial Reviews

"Sergio Ramírez has taken the best ingredients of Nicaraguan history—dictatorship and poetry, madness and love, conspiracies and con-men—and cooked them into a masterpiece that will thrill English-language readers as it has those of us who have read Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea in Spanish." —Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden


"Using brilliant language, Ramírez interweaves myth and reality to enrich the plot of this fascinating novel." —Claribel Alegría, author of Sorrow, and co-author of Death of Somoza

 


"A total novel about the secret mysteries of science, of poetry, and of dictatorships. the beauties of Rubén Darío and the horrors of Somoza intertwine in an unforgettable and absorbing story." —Thomás Eloy Martinez

From the Publisher

In this country, RamA-rez (To Bury Our Fathers) is probably best known as a former vice president of Nicaragua (1984-90) and a strong critic of the United States, but in Spanish-speaking countries he is regarded as a leading Nicaraguan fiction writer. This English-language translation of his Margarita, EstA Linda la Mar, which won Spain's Alfaguara Prize in 1998, is, writes the publisher, "a complete metaphor of reality and legend, the entire history of [the author's] country." In 1907, famed poet RubA©n DarA-o returns to his native Nicaragua, where he inscribes one of his most famous poems-that of the title-onto the fan of a nine-year-old girl. Forty-nine years later, the dictator Anastasio Somoza is assassinated by a group of intellectuals and poets. The novel weaves together these two stories in a highly complex structure: the reader must wade through several narrators; read transcribed radio conversations, letters, and even Somoza's curriculum vitae; and sift through legends and actual events. The result is a thoroughly engrossing political novel highly recommended for college and university libraries. [Visit the author online at www.sergioramirez.org.ni.-Ed.]
—Mary Margaret Benson

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