Mar Que Nos Trajo

Gambardo (b. 1923) is one of Argentina's most renowned playwrights and novelists. Her most recent novel concerns Luisa and Agostino, an Italian maid and a sailor who meet and become lovers in late-19th-century Buenos Aires. When Agostino is forced to return to his wife in Italy, Luisa and their infant daughter are left to survive on their own. Although illness begins to sap her strength, Luisa supports herself by washing clothes and eventually marries, and her daughter, Natalia, the focus of this tale, becomes a seamstress. She grows strong enough to keep the family together and avoid dangerous involvement with the married man she truly loves. As the years pass, a friendship develops between Agostino's Italian son and Natalia, his half-sister. Although set in a specific time and place, the novel taps the universal difficulties of the immigrant experience. Structurally, the novel works because the characters are richly and believably drawn. This excellent book is highly recommended for bookstores with popular fiction collections and both academic and public libraries with collections on Argentine history. Sonia Merubia, Benson Latin American Collection, Univ. of Texas, Austin