A Woman of Endurance

A Novel

De: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

Narrado por: Tracey Leigh

Combining the haunting power of Toni Morrison’s Beloved with the evocative atmosphere of Phillippa Gregory’s A Respectable Trade, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s groundbreaking novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history—the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade—witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves.

A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity.

Readers are invited to join Pola in her journey to healing. From the sadistic barbarity of her first experiences, she moves on to receive compassion and support from a revitalizing new community. Along the way, she learns to recognize and embrace the many faces of love—a mother’s love, a daughter’s love, a sister’s love, a love of community, and the self-love that she must recover before she can offer herself to another. It is ultimately, a novel of the triumph of the human spirit even under the most brutal of conditions.

©2022 Amistad (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

This book will stay with you long after you have completed it! So good!!

I loved everything about this book! I was captivated by every aspect of this book—the rich history, compelling characters, and gripping storyline. The author’s vivid imagination and masterful use of language are unlike anything I’ve encountered before—truly riveting. The range of emotions portrayed throughout the book resonated deeply with both the characters and myself. This is a story worth revisiting, and I plan to read it again, this time with a deeper understanding in mind. Happy reading—you won’t be disappointed!

Excellent story

The book is amazing! I highly recommend it. How much can one woman endure?? Paola is a warrior!!!

A Breathtaking Experience

This journey will take you through an emotional experience of the complexity of humans. An exploration of the Hispanic/Latino complex relationship with race and the hierarchy imposed on communities. Beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Well written. Only a brave author can write a book like this.

Really good

Loved this from start to finish. the storyline was captivating. couldn't put it down. some of narration was weak but storyline more than made up for it

Much needed story!

Love, Resilience and How to Endure. Community, Kindness, Empathy and Care what the World/ America is still missing in the majority population. We are still stuck on gender, race and religion when at the end of the day it doesn’t matter when you LOVE LIFE and the LIVING!

My heart

My heart aches for this book this story.....it is worth the read trust me. This will live in my heart forever.

Story of pain and loss and rebirth

This is a story of unbearable losses and a magnificent rebirth of love and hate

great story!

this was a great story, loved how gave me another idea of slaves in different places. will read thr author again.

Captivating and compelling!

Incredible account of a time and a life far from today. The masters of this plantation are a rare phenomenon, civil and not so prone to violence. Still, the slaves suffer unimaginable horrors from previous owners or from the bosses of the workers. Life is a constant vigilant effort.
Remarkably, the slaves find some simple things to enjoy and they build their own community. The story follows the extraordinary journey of one woman from a time of freedom and through a wretched life of degradation and unthinkable abuses. Remarkably, she endures with a strength of spirit that few will ever know or need.

Superb narration, from soothing tenderness to spewing venom as each character would.

Vivid and real

This book breaks your heart, then creates bolt of rage then tells how t heal it all.