The Coconut Latitudes

A father makes the fateful decision to leave a successful career in the US behind and move to an isolated beach in the Dominican Republic. He plants ten thousand coconut seedlings transplants his wife and two young daughters to a small village and declares they are the luckiest people alive. In reality the family is in the path of hurricanes and in the grip of a brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo-and the children are additionally under the thumb of an increasingly volatile and alcoholic father. Set against a backdrop of shimmering palms and kaleidoscope sunsets The Coconut Latitudes is Rita Gardner's compelling memoir of a childhood in paradise a journey into unexpected misery and a twisted path to redemption and truth.