The Line Of The Sun — Judith Ortiz Cofer

“A colorful, revealing portrait of Puerto Rican culture and domestic relationship” from the award-winning poet and author of An Island Like You (Publishers Weekly).
 
Set in the 1950s and 1960s, The Line of the Sun moves from a rural Puerto Rican village to a tough immigrant housing project in New Jersey, telling the story of a Hispanic family's struggle to become part of a new culture without relinquishing the old. At the story's center is Guzmán, an almost mythic figure whose adventures and exile, salvation and return leave him a broken man but preserve his place in the heart and imagination of his niece, who is his secret biographer.
 
“Cofer . . . reveals herself to be a prose writer of evocatively lyrical authority, a novelist of historical compass and sensitivity . . . One recognizes in the rich weave and vigorous elegance of the language of The Line of the Sun a writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important story to tell.” -- The New York Times Book Review
 
“There is great strength in the way Cofer evokes the fierce, loving, and brave Latin spirit that is the novel's real theme.” -- Joyce Johnson, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author
 
“The Line of the Sun reads like a dream, from the beautifully realized description of the deceptive Paradise Lost, to the utterly different but equally vivid world of the urban North . . . This is a splendid first novel.” -- The State (Columbia, South Carolina)
 
“The writing in this superb novel stuns and surprises at every turn. Its sensuality and imagery . . . are riveting.” -- The San Juan Star