The Ladies of Managua

March 30, 2015
In Gage’s (Other Waters) sweet, stately story, three generations of women reunite in Managua, Nicaragua, for a family funeral, where they reflect on their loves, losses, and what the future holds for each of them. Isabela, burying her husband of over 50 years, slips into memories of her first love while her daughter, Ninexin, who left her husband and child to fight for her country, longs to reconnect with her own daughter, Maria, who returns to Nicaragua from New York as an adult with secrets of her own. Unfolding in an unhurried fashion through these three alternating viewpoints, the first half of the book revolves around each woman’s interior reflections: Maria’s anxiety over her noncommittal boyfriend and her long-held resentment toward her mother, Ninexin’s guilt at leaving her daughter behind, and Isabela’s absorption in reliving a long-ago love affair. The story comes to life, however, as mysteries are revealed, such as just what Maria is running away from and the true circumstances of Maria’s father’s death as a young, idealistic revolutionary. Along the way, glimpses of the beautiful landscape and the history of Nicaragua provide a backdrop to a universal narrative of hurt and forgiveness.

March 15, 2015
An up-and-coming painter faces the collapse of her romantic life while repairing her neglected relationship with her mother. "Revolutionaries make bad husbands." So says Isabela, mother of Ninexin (a former Sandinista-turned-politician shaping the new Nicaragua) and grandmother of Mariana (an aspiring artist). She should know. Although her own husband, Ignacio, contented himself with running a law practice and hiding his mistresses, her son-in-law, Manuel, lost his life to the revolution. But this is a story about the revolutionary lives women make for themselves out of necessity, out of commitment, out of passion. After Manuel's death (in a shootout shrouded in mystery), living in Nicaragua becomes increasingly dangerous for Ninexin, so she sends their 7-year-old daughter, Mariana, to live in Miami with her parents. The cost: Mariana and Ninexin become estranged-Ninexin convinced that Mariana will judge her, Mariana convinced that Ninexin always loved Nicaragua more than her own daughter. But when Ignacio dies and his body is flown to Nicaragua to be buried, Mariana returns to Managua not only for the funeral, but also for a little time away from her boyfriend, Allen. Divorced, a successful painter, and quite a bit older than Mariana, Allen follows her to Managua, hoping to repair their fragile relationship. This novel fairly begs to be filmed. Chapter by chapter, Gage (Other Waters, 2012, etc.) shifts from Isabela's to Ninexin's to Mariana's perspective, often retelling the same scene through another character's eyes. These shifts reveal the emotional ties binding the women together as well as the secrets that have forced them to make painful choices. From the closely chaperoned lives of schoolgirls in 1950s New Orleans, where Isabela was a student, to the explosive insurrection of 1970s and '80s Nicaragua to the sniping artistic world of 2010s New York, Gage carefully and thoughtfully explores the social demands placed on women and the repercussions of submitting to or defying them.

May 15, 2015
The author of Other Waters (2012) takes readers to Nicaragua in her new novel, as three generations of women come together to say goodbye to their family's patriarch. Saddened by the loss of her beloved grandfather, Ignacio, 33-year-old Maria travels from New York to Managua after a fight with her boyfriend, Allen, a painter a decade older than she, who she fears can't really see her. Maria's mother, Ninexin, a revolutionary who chose to dedicate herself to the cause rather than to raising her child, still longs to connect with her daughter. And Isabela's world is turned upside down when her granddaughter, Maria, delivers a missive that opens a door Isabela had long assumed had closed forever. As Isabela is absorbed by memories of a lost love in New Orleans a lifetime ago, Maria must decide if she and Allen have a future after he unexpectedly turns up at Ignacio's funeral, and Ninexin grapples with guilt over the fateful night that robbed Maria of her father. Readers will find themselves completely absorbed in this rich, multigenerational tale of love lost and reclaimed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)