alvarez julia in the time of the butterflies

She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. In the Time of the Butterflies is an American Library Association Notable Book and a 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award nominee. Alvarez also offers the perspectives of the other sisters: brave and outspoken Minerva, the family's political ringleader pious Patria, who forsakes her faith to join her sisters after witnessing the atrocities of the tyranny and the baby sister, sensitive Maria Teresa, who, in a series of diaries, chronicles her allegiance to Minerva and the physical and spiritual anguish of prison life. The novel begins with the recollections of Dede, the fourth and surviving sister, who fears abandoning her routines and her husband to join the movement. Alvarez breathes life into these historical figures-known as 'las mariposas,' or 'the butterflies,' in the underground-as she imagines their teenage years, their gradual involvement with the revolution, and their terror as their dissentience is uncovered.Īlvarez's controlled writing perfectly captures the mounting tension as 'the butterflies' near their horrific end. A skillful blend of fact and fiction, In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government. Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.įrom the author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents comes this tale of courage and sisterhood set in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. Librarian's Note: an alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Alvarez julia in the time of the butterflies