In a novel as fragmented and verdant as memory itself, Argentine author Steimberg (Call Me Magdalena
) creates a troubled Argentine writer, a widow in her late 50s who seeks comfort and recovery at a convalescent spa in the lush Brazilian rain forest. In scraps of tortured writing, dreams and unbidden recollections, Cecilia examines her relationships with three men: her deceased second husband, Dardo; Federico, the violent drug-addicted son she has cut out of her life; and Steve, a biologist from Los Angeles with whom she falls in love. She reveals her past with both self-recrimination and self-justification, especially the brutal scenes with Federico. Cecilia believes that true healing—of the cancers that kill husbands, of the addictions that destroy sons and of the guilt that torment mothers—would require recoding DNA, rewriting history and, finally, erasing memory itself. She can't undo the past, any more than she can escape herself. The question this reflective novel finally poses is whether Cecilia is strong enough to risk the possibility of a future with a man who is, ultimately, as imperfect and mortal as she is. (Sept.)
