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A uniquely dark, coming-of-age novel rife with urban magical realism, love, and redemption, from the author of Bodega Dreams

When Julio, a teenager living in Spanish Harlem, hears that Taina, a pregnant fifteen-year-old from his high school claims to be a virgin, he decides to believe her. Julio has a history of strange visions and his blind and unrequited love for Taina will unleash a whirlpool of emotions that will bring him to question his hard-working Puerto Rican mother and his communist Ecuadorian father, his beliefs and even the building blocks of modern science (after seeing the conception of Taina’s baby as a revolution in nature). 

After meeting Taína's uncle, "El Vejigante", an ex-con with a dark past, he accepts his proposal to support her during her pregnancy and becomes entangled in a web of crime that, while taking him closer to Taína, ultimately reveals a family secret that will not leave him unscathed.
Ernesto Quiñonez was born in Ecuador, but arrived to New York City he was eighteen months old and was raised in El Barrio, East Harlem. Quiñonez is also the author of Bodega Dreams and Chango's Fire. Quiñonez is an Associate Professor at Cornell University, where he teaches Creative Writing, Latino Fiction and Magical Realism, among others. View titles by Ernesto Quiñonez
“El realismo mágico latinoamericano cruza todas las fronteras y llega al barrio de Spanish Harlem: una historia de amor y de iniciación a la vida, un misterio, un enigma y, por encima de todo, un relato sobre el amor verdadero en su más amplio sentido”. --Julia Álvarez, autora de En el tiempo de las mariposas

“Taina es una ardiente búsqueda del significado de lo que elegimos creer y de las historias que nos contamos a nosotros mismos. […] La fe absoluta de esta novela en el poder del amor es algo que necesitamos oír ahora más que nunca”. --Helena Viramontes, autora de Under the Feet of Jesus

About

A uniquely dark, coming-of-age novel rife with urban magical realism, love, and redemption, from the author of Bodega Dreams

When Julio, a teenager living in Spanish Harlem, hears that Taina, a pregnant fifteen-year-old from his high school claims to be a virgin, he decides to believe her. Julio has a history of strange visions and his blind and unrequited love for Taina will unleash a whirlpool of emotions that will bring him to question his hard-working Puerto Rican mother and his communist Ecuadorian father, his beliefs and even the building blocks of modern science (after seeing the conception of Taina’s baby as a revolution in nature). 

After meeting Taína's uncle, "El Vejigante", an ex-con with a dark past, he accepts his proposal to support her during her pregnancy and becomes entangled in a web of crime that, while taking him closer to Taína, ultimately reveals a family secret that will not leave him unscathed.

Author

Ernesto Quiñonez was born in Ecuador, but arrived to New York City he was eighteen months old and was raised in El Barrio, East Harlem. Quiñonez is also the author of Bodega Dreams and Chango's Fire. Quiñonez is an Associate Professor at Cornell University, where he teaches Creative Writing, Latino Fiction and Magical Realism, among others. View titles by Ernesto Quiñonez

Praise

“El realismo mágico latinoamericano cruza todas las fronteras y llega al barrio de Spanish Harlem: una historia de amor y de iniciación a la vida, un misterio, un enigma y, por encima de todo, un relato sobre el amor verdadero en su más amplio sentido”. --Julia Álvarez, autora de En el tiempo de las mariposas

“Taina es una ardiente búsqueda del significado de lo que elegimos creer y de las historias que nos contamos a nosotros mismos. […] La fe absoluta de esta novela en el poder del amor es algo que necesitamos oír ahora más que nunca”. --Helena Viramontes, autora de Under the Feet of Jesus

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