“They call it the Day of the Moon….During the night, when we’re sleeping, our souls do wonderful, mysterious things with those who have gone onto the other side of the sierras. They say it is at this time that we make new songs and poems, and that we discover who we love.”
In a dramatic new work, acclaimed novelist Graciela Limón tells a story that spans the twentieth century, from Mexico to Los Angeles, and four generations of a family named Betancourt. Among its members: the harsh Don Flavio, who believed that mere chance could win or lose one a fortune, but only ruthlessness could hold onto it. . . His enigmatic and secretive sister, Brigida. . . And his golden-haired daughter Isadora, who refused to submit to her father’s dictates, however terrible the cost.
Behind them all stand the haunting figure of the Indian runner Jerónimo Santiago, one of the many Tarahumara people native to the region of the Don Flavio’s hacienda. Though they may wish to deny even the mere presence of the Tarahumara, the Betancourts are all pursued by Jerónimo Santiago—even in death—to the deepest recess of family memory.
“Murder, dismemberment, casting out, imprisonment, love, loyalty and the lives of spirits sweep through the pages of this novel and make it hard to put down.”—-San Antonio Express-News
Graciela Limón is the critically-acclaimed and award-winning author of eight novels: The Madness of Mamá Carlota (2012), The River Flows North (2009), Left Alive (2005), Erased Faces (2001), The Day of the Moon (1999), Song of the Hummingbird (1996), The Memories of Ana Calderón (1994) and In Search of Bernabé (1993), all published by Arte Público Press. In Search of Bernabé, translated and published in Spanish as En busca de Bernabé in 1997, was the recipient of an American Book Award. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times’ Art Seidenbaum First Novel Award and was named “Notable Book of the Year” by The New York Times Book Review. The Memories of Ana Calderón has also been translated and published in Spanish as Los recuerdos de Ana Calderón (2011). Her novel, Erased Faces, is the recipient of the 2002 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award. Limón is Professor Emeritus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she served as a professor of U.S. Latina/o Literature and Chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies.
