Alfaguara Presents Ángela Hernández Núñez’s New Novel

Alfaguara Presents Ángela Hernández Núñez’s New Novel
Santo Domingo, December 3, 2013

The Alfaguara Publishing Company and the Corripio Foundation invite to the launching of the new novel by Ángela Hernández Núñez, Leona, o la fiera vida (Leona, or the fierce life), during a ceremony that will be held on Friday, December 7th, 2013, at 6:30 pm, in the “Manuel Rueda” Conference Room of the Corripio Foundation. The keynote address will be delivered by renowned author and art critic Jeannette Miller.

“One day I would bring Beba and my sisters and Antonio into a sound life. The most important thing was for them to stay alive until they reach me, once I was ready to take over.” So thinks Leona, a young woman growing up in the idyllic countryside of Quima in the late 50s. Leona’s story begins with her adventures and antics as a child, the strict supervision of her widowed mother, and the limitations of their livelihoods.

Sent to the Capital by her mother, she will experience the political instability of the years that follow Trujillo’s fall from power, and will face her own dangers and challenges, such as the attempted rape of someone close to her and the days she spent with a couple of progressive Italians. Then, her family will find itself between two opposing forces at the outbreak of the war of April of 1965, and Leona will manage to maintain some sanity within the family unit.

This novel is about learning, about the road to maturity; it is based on the unbreakable bonds of home and family, which the mighty narrative skills and the cautious lyrical breath of Ángela Hernández shape into a universe of its own, set on such a real and yet unknown Quima.

Ángela Hernández is a storyteller and a poet. She has published the storybooks Alótropos (1989), Masticar una rosa [Chew a rose] (1993), Piedra de Sacrificio [Stone of Sacrifice] (1998 National Prize) and La Secta del Crisantemo [The Chrysanthemum Sect] (2013 National Prize). Also the novels Mudanza de los Sentidos [The Transformation of the Senses] (2000 Cole Prize for Brief Novel), Charamicos (2003), and Metáfora del Cuerpo en Fuga [Metaphor of the Body in Flight] (2006), and several books of poetry and essays. Some of her works have been translated into English, French, Italian, Icelandic, Bengali and Norwegian, and appear in anthologies at home and abroad. She has been Director of the Xinesquema literary magazine and is a Corresponding Member of the Dominican Academy of Language.