The Tree of Red Stars

Suffused with the poignancy of a memorial to lost lives, this debut novel, winner of the Milkweed Prize for Fiction, is an unblinking exploration of the way absolute power can destroy civilized existence. Narrator Magda's life is taken up with the leisures of the privileged class in 1960s and '70s Uruguay: afternoon tea, debutante balls, the prospects of marrying well and the after-school pranks she and her best friend play on neighbors. Yet growing political instability, the unrest of an impoverished, undereducated majority and blatant gender oppression gradually infiltrate Magda's consciousness and force her to face the hard choices that come with adulthood. Two turning points--a Che Guevara rally that becomes violent, and a year of high-school foreign exchange studies in the U.S.--help sweep Magda into the Tupamaros guerrilla movement. Bridal gracefully segues from these pivotal scenes into gently told reminiscences of family and neighborhood incidents. Magda's observations about the impact of the arrival of a Jewish family down the street, a neighbor's abandonment of his wife and children, her aunt's gossip, her interactions with the loyal maid and the local beggar and her reflections from her eye-opening year in Michigan all work to advance Magda's growing sense of herself and of the world's injustices. Bridal's understated prose permits large moments to occur without melodrama, and small ones to build into potent revelations. Author tour. (June)