Thank you to Netgalley and Europa Editions for a copy of this book.

This was originally published in Spanish in 1987. Translation by Isabel Adey and Charlotte Coombe.

Lina, now living in Paris tells the story of three women, Dora, Catalina and Beatriz from her past in Barranquilla, Colombia. Their world is violent and patriarchal.

I found I could not get into this story at all as I did like Moreno's writing style. Her sentences were were unnecessarily long (nearly half a page at time) and complex. We see a large number of character in this narrative, but we don't really get to know any of them.

This is described as a feminist book, but that seems questionable to me since it contains a rape sex that is so detailed it seems gratuitous. I also did not appreciate Moreno's treatment of homosexuality.

This seems to be a highly popular book, but I don't understand the hype, I hated it more and more as I read it.