La Quinta Soledad

Award-winning Chicana writer from Tucson, Arizona Silviana Wood's debut novel, LA QUINTA SOLEDAD, is a tour de force of Mexican American literature, language, culture, cuisine, folklore and humor.

Part fiction and part memoir, the novel is narrated by 62-year-old Quinta Soledad, a neighborhood typist and scribe from Barrio Anita in Tucson, Arizona. She tells a multigenerational Mexicana/Chicana family story of "oro molido" memories that center on her strict and unforgiving abuela, Nana Conchita; her single mother, Lola, who loves to sing and dance; and her four older blossom sisters: Dalia (la Dolly, the frustrated artist who looks like Joan Baez), Magnolia (la Maggie, who loves animals and speaks in her own peculiar language), Orquídea (la Orky, the incessant liar and beautiful wannabe actress who is the best cook in the family), and Azucena (la Susie Mae, the lover of Gabriel García Márquez and expert on plants and saints' birthdays).

After a barrio shoot-out, Lola convinces her great granddaughter and daughters to take her to the fiesta del milagroso San Francisco the following day in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, México, where she and her mother, Nana Conchita, were born. Thus, plans are made for what turns out to be a rowdy female family road trip where la Quinta Soledad not only ends up confessing her "sins" and indiscretions with her divino tormento, Chevo, to el milagroso San Francisco, but also reconciling her difficult past and the sordid espantos that have haunted her dreams.

"La Quinta Soledad is a masterpiece!" and "Silviana Wood is La Mera Mera."--Denise Chavez, author of Loving Pedro Infante

"Highly recommended. La Quinta Soledad is the kind of vast chronicle that transports readers to everywhere they desire to go."--Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird's Daughter

"Silviana Wood has delivered a wondrous tale, a celebration of culture, language and familia. This is a story to be savored, page by precious page."--Demetria Martinez, author of Mother Tongue

Fiction. Hybrid. Latinx Studies. Native American Studies. Women's Studies.