Sandino on the Border

<p><strong>What Critics Say about Marc Zimmerman his Illusions of Memory series and this book: </strong><em>A wonderful writer.</em><strong> Luis Alberto Urrea. </strong><em>An incredible opus.</em> <strong>Dick Goldberg</strong>. <em>Nothing like this series in American fiction</em>.<strong> John Beverley. </strong><em>Wonderfully imaginative and truthful stories.</em><strong> Marta S��nchez.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>A Nicaraguan doctor steals his son across the border leaving his estranged wife and his son's traumatized half-brother to fend for themselves until they meet up with Mel a Jewish American who joins their struggle to win back the lost boy even as they pursue their new lives.</p><p><br></p><p>Book One traces Mel's growing immersion in Lena's fight for her lost son even as he becomes father to the boy left behind-a story that takes them to Nicaragua twice as they become involved with the Sandinista movement and the Revolution. Book Two tells of Lena's family-an uncle who coordinates Sandinista-related border crossings; a mother who smuggles underwear into Mexico City; an aunt who tries to keep her son's family together in L.A.; a son who moves from the Californias to Minnesota; a grandmother who marvels at the world she beholds when she is taken across the border.</p><p><br></p><p>All this in the shadow of C��sar Augusto Sandino Nicaragua's national hero who hovers over an entire family in a story roaming from Baja and Southern California to Minneapolis Chicago Mexico City and Managua during a period of cold war and social upheaval.</p><p><br></p><p>With Carlos Barberena's haunting prints <em>Sandino on the Border </em>presents an untold story of the Americas and border life. The book's multi-voiced narrative recalls Faulkner's <em>As I Lay Dying</em> and the epilogue evokes works by John Keats Fitzgerald and Hemingway in a text that also relates to more recent discursive modes and transnational relations. This new editon portrays the Sandinista Revolution's early days and hints at the problems discussed in a striking final note on the Ortega-Murrillo regime.</p><p><br></p><p>Marc Zimmerman is U. of Illinois at Chicago and U. of Houston Emeritus Professor in Latin American/Latino Studies and world cultures and literatures . He worked in Sandinista Nicaragua and has produced several books on Central American Mexican Caribbean and Latino themes. His recent work centers on his autofiction series of which this book is a remarkable example.</p><p> </p><p><br></p>