Books by Marvel Moreno

“I recommend this book to you very, very much. It’s just been translated into English. It’s by Marvel Moreno (1939-1995), a writer who wasn’t allowed to get known because she lived in a society that forbade women to be intellectuals and to be in the public arena. This book has had a long struggle to get read. People are reading it now and they’re recognizing its value. It’s a huge, big novel, like a Dostoyevsky or a Tolstoy, that wants to tell everything, that wants to tell the world. It’s the story of several women in Barranquilla, which is a big port on the Caribbean coast. It’s a very small society, of people who think they are almost from the nobility. They’re very conservative. It’s set in the 1950 and 60s and tells the story of women there. It’s a very brave novel, because in those days—and even nowadays, even in my time—we were told that women do not have sexual desires, and that if you happen to have such desire then you do not talk about it and you do not show it. This book talks about women desiring and women being sexual creatures and women living their sexuality, sometimes in a liberating way, but sometimes also being abused by men. It makes for a very painful but, unfortunately, realistic portrayal of the lives of women in those days. It’s a long novel, but it’s a novel you devour. You want the day to finish so you can get home and read. It’s that kind of novel. She has great prose. She’s a big writer.” Read more...

The Best Colombian Novels

Pilar Quintana, Novelist