{"product_id":"the-festival-of-san-joaquin-macmillan-caribbean-writers","title":"The Festival of San Joaquin (Macmillan Caribbean Writers)","description":"\u003cp\u003eLuz Marina  jailed for the murder of her violent husband  returns to her home village  hoping to leave the past behind and win back custody of her children. But first she must reckon with the ill-will of her former employer and mother-in-law  the wealthy landowner Doa Catalina  who plots to ruin Luz Marinas chances of rebuilding her life. This novel  set among the mestizo Spanish communities of rural Belize  gives a sympathetic and moving portrait of peasant life.Zee Edgell is Belizes foremost writer  and the first Belizean to reach an international audience for her literature. A journalist  she has served as Director of the Department of Womens Affairs of Belize and Head of the Womens Bureau of Belize; Secretary to the Governing Board for Concerned Women For Family Planning in Dacca  Bangladesh; and UNICEF Consultant to The Somali Womens Democratic Organization in Mogadishu  Somali. She currently teaches creative writing at Kent State University in Ohio. Her other novels are Beka Lamb (winner of the Fawcett Society Book Prize)  In Times Like These and Time and the River.Zee Edgells style seems at first quite bald and unadorned  but develops its own cadence as the narrative starts to mesh together. This is a warm  satisfying story  a testament to struggle and hope which manages to draw in  quite skillfully and simply  wider themes such as environmental profiteering and the role of the evangelical church as aspects of the communitys life. The New Internationalist A very fine addition to the canon of novels from the Caribbean by women and to the literature of the region itself. The Caribbean Writer\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44948078166069,"sku":"ByrdShop_0230029914","price":228.09,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780230029910_55e69734-bbad-4c42-8f07-69314e93d7b7.jpg?v=1770335304","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-festival-of-san-joaquin-macmillan-caribbean-writers","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}