The Republic of Dreams

This mesmerizing novel, first published in 1989, marks the debut in English of one of the most brilliant and admired of today's Latin American writers. As the novel opens, the matriarch Eulalia has begun her final task--dying. Long, long ago she came to Brazil from Spain--a bride with her already formidable, iron-willed husband, Madruga. Inspired by Grandfather Xan, the young couple brought with them the passion for making memories into tales--told as sustenance, proof, and hallmark; told as protection against the killing rush of time. Now, as both Eulalia and her era near their end, that tradition achieves its most poignant flowering--in a burst of family lore, recrimination, and recollected dreams, as the clan, gathered at Eulalia's side, relives the past and vies for the future.