Por: Laura Oliver

Madelene was born in 1955 in the Guatemalan city of Las Cruces and grew up as happy and free as a gazelle in nature. Bathing every day in the delicious waters of the La Pasión river; stealing fruit from the neighbors' orchard and being caught and fleeing from the angry peasants; chasing her brothers Lucas and Freddy in endless pranks and mischiefs. Her childhood memories were calm and stunning, but there was a dreadful shadow lurking in the shadows. It finally put its claws on her and caught her for good. This novel is, above all, a narrative of naive love, just waiting for the appropriate time to seize her heart just at the moment of the great affliction, when she needed it the most. This tale is also a metaphor in several ways of how we experience our daily life. How indeed, we make decisions in a pessimistic, realistic, or hopeful way, and their impact. Finally, it is a model on how to remain afloat even while engulfed in awful miseries.