Perla

De: Carolina De Robertis

Narrado por: Carolina De Robertis

A coming-of-age story, based on a recent shocking chapter of Argentine history, about a young woman who makes a devastating discovery about her origins with the help of an enigmatic houseguest.

Perla Correa grew up a privileged only child in Buenos Aires, with a cold, polished mother and a straitlaced naval officer father, whose profession she learned early on not to disclose in a country still reeling from the abuses perpetrated by the deposed military dictatorship. Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of the conflict, but her love for her papá is unconditional. But when Perla is startled by an uninvited visitor, she begins a journey that will force her to confront the unease she has suppressed all her life, and to make a wrenching decision about who she is, and who she will become.

©2012 Carolina De Robertis (P)2012 Random House

heartbreaking and beautiful

I loved this story so much as it weaved in and out of various pasts. I loved the way the Latin mysticism danced around Perla and her story. it's incredible to me that we do know speak more of la Guerra Sucia when to me it seems like the trials of that time are just as important as the Nuremberg Trials. More must be told and this story was beautifully done. I was sad when it ended because I wanted more.

Beautiful

Loved the way the author wove magical realism into the story. The narration is lovely and easy to listen to for long periods of time.

An incredible read.

Loved it, so original, an amazing story teller and well researched. De Robertis does it again.

Evolution of a life…

I liked the psychology…a tragic story worked out consciously and subconsciously in the character’s mind. Psychosis…

Talking to the Dead

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Plot move faster. The idea that someone just shows up, dead, and draining water was hard to accept, believe, or enjoy.

Would you be willing to try another book from Carolina De Robertis? Why or why not?

I would read another book by her. She can write well and expand on setting and descriptions. Her vocabulary was excellent.

What aspect of Carolina De Robertis’s performance would you have changed?

Her voice and intonation was the same for all characters. I did not enjoy listening to her read it.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

The character, Perla, struggling to come to terms with her past—no problem. Her boyfriend, for his young age of 25, it was not easy to believe that he had the maturity to deal with her. She rehashed the same thing, Perla that is, so much that it was hard not to feel exasperated.

Not a book I enjoyed much.