The Volcano Daughters | Gina Maria Balibrera

This is historical fiction set in El Salvador and it parallels history in that it tells the story of a repressive regime that ran the country in the early 20th century. The Volcano Daughters refer to two young girls born out in the volcanic mountains of rural El Salvador. The older daughter was taken from her mother by her birth father when she was 3. The father was the childhood friend of and had risen to be a confidante of "The General." While not the President, the General, or El Gran Pendejo, really ran the show. He intimidated or eliminated anyone who stood in his way. After the death of his confidante (under mysterious circumstances) he takes in the younger daughter who had remained with her mother and she was installed as his "oracle." The story tells the stories of these two daughters and what they had to do to survive. Eventually they are able to escape the clutches of El Gran Pendejo and we travel through pre-WWII Paris, the early days of talkies in Hollywood and old San Francisco.

The book isn't perfect, but what makes it interesting is the cultural history you pick up along the way. The story's narrators are spirits (for a nice dose of magical realism) and there are Spanish phrases sprinkled throughout that give you a strong sense of both the community on the mountain and the toxic environment of the capitol city. I thought the start of the book was particularly well-written and did a great job of setting up the main characters and the very strange political culture of the time. Parallels to today? Sure I think you could find that, too.

El Salvador is all over the library. Solito, a memoir highlighted here earlier, was written by a Salvadoran writer, Javier Zamora.