The Dark Bride : a Novel
Laura Restrepo is known as one of the most provocative writers to emerge from the rich Latin American literary scene, an author whose sensuous mix of true-to-life realism and imaginative storytelling has catapulted her to bestseller status both in Colombia and internationally.The Dark Bride is her latest novel, a slyly humorous, yet poignant lovestory based upon Restrepo's in-depth research of the rapacious workings of an American-controlled Colombian oil company. Restrepo's journalist-protagonist mines a rich trove of characters, including fortune hunters, guerrilla chiefs, refinery workers and prostitutes--who, together with the narrator, attempt to decipher the impulsive and mysterious life of the young Sayonara, the unlikely heroine of The Dark Bride. Sayonara is drawn like an exotic moth to work beneath one of the colored lights of La Catunga, the local house of prostitution. Enigmatic, arrogant beyond her years, she is transformed by her sage madam into the queen of her squalid Colombian barrio. Each month, Sayonara charms the oil workers of the Tropical Oil Company, who have journeyed down from the mountains searching for some earthly bliss. But it is not just oil workers who are captivated by Sayonara. She isalso the flame that draws an incredible cast of haunting characters into the tragi-comic obsession that is her life--from Sacramento, the childhood playmate who is determined to rescue Sayonara, to the stranger, Payanés, her one true love who carries his own secrets.She is the Dark Bride, who subtly reveals a personal and political universe forever marked by her passing. A story that is perceptive, richly detailed and yet effortlessly told, The Dark Bride is luminous and indelible.