NIGHT OF THE RADISHES
Sandra Benitez, . . Hyperion/Theia, $23.95 (276pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-6400-3
Set in Minnesota and Mexico, Benítez's engrossing fourth novel recounts the journey of a responsible daughter who travels south to search for her long-lost brother. Thirty-four-year-old Annie Hart Rush is living a mundane life in Minneapolis until her mother's death leaves her $1 million and, far more interestingly, a journal written on her deathbed that forces Annie to rethink her past. She learns that her brother, Hub, who ran away from home at 17, had been sending postcards to her mother all the while that Annie thought he'd disappeared, and she flies to Oaxaca to track him down. After a rough beginning, the novel finds its stride, rewarding persistent readers with a suspenseful plot and well-developed characters. Benítez does a great job of capturing landscapes, both north and south of the border, and she crafts a convincing voice for the mother's journal, which appears in excerpts throughout the book. Fans of the author's previous novels (
Reviewed on: 01/05/2004
Genre: Fiction
Paperback - 288 pages - 978-1-4013-0782-0