Book dossier

El Leopardo al Sol

by Laura Restrepo

"Leopard in the Sun is an operatic Latin tragedy, complete with chorus of local gossips and popular legend. It begins with a fight over a woman, when Nando Barragan kills his best friend and cousin Adriano Monsalve in a passionate, drunken delirium. As a result, the wise family patriarch separates the two families forever - the Barragans will hold sway over the city; the Monsalves the port. Each year, on the day known as the zeta, and only on that day, they will have the opportunity to avenge the previous year's deaths - and each year, the women are not yet out of their black mourning when a new round of deaths occurs."--BOOK JACKET. "Nando Barragan sticks to the old way, leading his clan to ever-greater wealth, while living the simple peasant life in the village, womanizing far and wide, and trying to protect his brothers: the dandy Narciso, the innocent Arcangel, and the rogue Raca. Mani Monsalve tries to have it both ways, managing his family's black market affairs while trying to be accepted in legitimate society and keeping his ex-beauty queen wife happy."--BOOK JACKET. "Every year on the zeta, Barragans are killed by Monsalves and vice versa. The women suffer and devise increasingly elaborate strategies to protect their men. La Muda Barragan lovingly tends to the sequestered Arcangel. Alina Monsalve risks everything to protect her son from the primitive ways of his father's family."--BOOK JACKET.