Review by Booklist Review
Llanos-Figueroa's literary novel of life under slavery is set, atypically, in Puerto Rico. In 1849, Pola has faced horror upon horror at the plantation ironically named Hacienda Paraíso, from endless degradations to rapes and beatings, her infants stolen and sold. Pola finally flees, confident in the protection of the Yoruba water goddess, Yemayá. Yet she is recaptured, beaten nearly to death, and sold to the owner of Hacienda las Mercedes. There Pola finds a very different life, one not without its dangers but with the potential for a bit of happiness, if she can only reach past her trauma to tell friend from foe. Llanos-Figueroa's prose is at once merciless and elegantly descriptive, conjuring atrocity as well as historical atmosphere and creating characterization that is sketched sparingly but with depth. There are elements of magical realism as well as a convincing portrayal of the informal plantation caste system--the house workers, the skilled artisans, the field hands--and how it affects the relationships among the enslaved. Those seeking tales of triumph through endurance will find this an engaging if at times brutal, read.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Llanos-Figueroa's intense and bittersweet return (after Daughters of the Stone) traces the gut-wrenching life of a woman who struggles to survive slavery and find trust and love in her community. In 1836, Pola, 18, is captured in West Africa and enslaved on a sugarcane plantation in Puerto Rico. Pola is made a "breeding mare," in her words, forcibly impregnated many times, her children immediately seized and sold into slavery. In vivid and often graphic detail, Llanos-Figueroa depicts the sadness and inhumanity of Pola's life: her capture, the "man-beasts" who rape her, and her transfer to a second plantation to recover after having run away from the first and been caught, then beaten nearly to death. Rufina, an enslaved healer, mends Pola's body, but Pola is combative with and untrusting of other enslaved people. As Pola becomes a maternal figure to Chachita, a starving, orphaned girl roaming outside the plantation, she begins to soften. Others help protect the girl, assistance for which Pola is grateful, but tragedy strikes again. The action builds toward a memorable end as Pola regains her belief in Mother Yemayá, her faith spirit. The restoration of her Yoruba spirituality and her deepened friendships are both touching and emotionally palpable. This harrowing story is hard to put down. Agent: Marie Brown, Marie Brown Assoc. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
A 2010 finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, author Llanos-Figueroa pulls from her Puerto Rican heritage to bring listeners a story from a 19th-century plantation in Puerto Rico. Having grown up with her grandparents there, the author discovered the rich storytelling traditions of the women in her family. She continues this tradition with the story of Pola, a captured and enslaved woman from the west coast of Africa. Pola's idyllic life ends abruptly and she suddenly exists only to work the sugarcane fields and be brutally raped. Her infants are taken from her immediately after birth. When this horrific existence becomes too much to bear, Pola escapes to end her enslavement, but she is caught, whipped, and sold to another plantation where conditions are relatively better. Actress Tracey Leigh narrates Pola's tale and characters. Even while the narrative depicts horrors, the narration is calm and evenly paced. VERDICT The listener may wish for a more streamlined narrative, but the side stories paint an authentic picture of Pola's life and chronicle her healing as she moves from beyond death to life.--Laura Trombley
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An enslaved woman finds that human bonds sustain her even amid the cruelties of plantation life. As a teenager in the early 19th century, Keera is kidnapped from her home in Yorubaland by slave traders. She is sold to the owner of Hacienda Paraiso, a plantation in Puerto Rico. He makes dual use of the women he enslaves: They work the sugar cane fields, and they are kept almost constantly pregnant, their babies taken away and sold right after birth. The novel opens with Keera, renamed Pola, making a desperate escape attempt after years of loss drive her close to madness. She ends up on Hacienda Las Mercedes, another sugar cane plantation but one with somewhat more humane owners--Pola is astonished to see enslaved children living there with their families. She's been savagely beaten and gang-raped, but she recovers under the care of Rufina, a curandera, and two other older women who, although they are enslaved, have a degree of autonomy because of their talents for curing, cooking, and directing the plantation's workshop that produces lucrative fine needlework and dresses. When she's well, she becomes a protégé of all three, assisting Rufina in her healing arts, learning to cook in Pastora's fine kitchen, and serving as a cutter and helper to Tia Josefa's needleworkers. Llanos-Figueroa draws a detailed picture of social hierarchy on the plantation, not just that of owners and the enslaved, but the status system among the workers, based on the kind of work they do, which is in turn based on colorism--darker-skinned people are assigned to the grueling tasks like cutting cane, while the lighter-skinned (often mixed race) people work in the big house, serving tea and sewing ball gowns. Pola, who is dark, becomes an exception to the rule and the object of resentment. She also becomes the object of desire of a strong, stoic worker named Simon, but her hatred of men stands between them. Her heart does warm for Chachita, an orphan girl she finds living on her own in the woods. Chachita fills the empty spot in Pola's heart left by her stolen babies, but helping the child puts them both at risk. Llanos-Figueroa's prose is lively, her characters vivid. The last part of the book loses steam when it shifts into romance mode, but it's a moving and engaging tale. An absorbing and complex novel shines a light on chattel slavery in Puerto Rico. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
