What an utterly amazing novel. This was one of those "where have you been hiding" moments that I get very rarely. In the blurb it suggests the this novel is Dominicana crossed with Woman of Light. I've not read the latter but this book is nothing like Dominicana.

Reinbou is split into two timelines : 1965 when the revolution in the Dominican Republic was put down by the US, fearing a descent into a Communist state if the country was allowed to break free and 1976 where we meet Maceta (son of the revolutionary Puro who was killed by the US during the failed revolution).

The character of Maceta is that of a luminescent child. He brings joy to everyone in his orbit not least because he seems guided by something others don't possess. It's hard to describe Maceta without having a smile on my face. However none of the honest characters live easy lives. We explore each of their histories and the changes they undergo in 1976 which are all directly related to Maceta's fascination with the rainbows created by the sprinkler system at the US Army golf course.

We follow both timelines to the point where they coalesce at the point of Maceta's conception and his father's death. The story being told by Lucia, the love of Maceta's life, to her two very nosey and skeptical daughters.

I'm absolutely blown away by this translated novel that was originally published in 2017. To say that this book is less than 250 pages is so surprising because it feels that there's twice that much packed into such a slim volume.

Utterly entranced by this novel. Very highly recommended. Please read it (and if anyone knows where I can see the film adaptation please tell me).

Thankyou so much to Netgalley and Astra Publishing for an advance review copy. Most appreciated.

"But poverty is a revolving door. Not a day had passed before Inma’s old shack would be occupied again, this time by an even larger family . . . and they’d be cooking again in the wood stove under the shade of the tamarind tree, and the laundry hanging on the clotheslines would return and return and return and return. And when they leave, others will come, and others and others and others . . .

"For how long?

"No one knows."

An essential work of historical fiction about U.S. colonialism, intervention, and corruption in the Dominican Republic, and an incandescent translation by Jessica Powell. Highly recommended.