Maria Espinosa's Books
Feb.01.2009
This is the story of a troubled relationship between Eleanor and her daughter, Rosa, as told through their alternating voices. At the center is their rivalry over Rosa's husband, Antonio, who acts as a catalyst on more than one level. Sex is the merely the means through which each characters seeks a far deeper psychic and emotional connection with another being, the self, and the...
Dec.01.2002
This is a story about Marranos (also known as anusim, forced ones), secret Jews of Spain who passed as Christians. The story takes place in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Alfonso, a native of Cadiz, learns at the age of thirteen that certain members of his family have remained secretly faithful to their Jewish roots. As a young child, he had watched the Jews leave Spain...
Sep.01.1995
Longing is a psychological novel focusing on a young woman’s dependence on her husband and finally her attempts to forge an independent life for herself and escape their unhealthy relationship. Rosa, a frail, sensitive American Jew living in Paris, marries an alcoholic expatriate from Chile and finds herself trapped in a sado-masochistic relationship. After the birth of their...
Jan.08.1991
More than an autobiography of an extraordinary woman, it is also the story of a century of French history as lived through the experiences and fates of three generations, the tumultuous history of the birth of modern France, and the transformation of a society.
Dostoevsky called Lélia “Sand’s immense ethical quest.” It is the most self-revealing of her novels. Published in 1833, it shocked the public by advocating the same standard of morality for both sexes. She later published an expurgated version of the novel.
It is the most autobiographical of her novels veiled in the story of a woman who explores asceticism as well as erotic love in...
Dark Plums is Maria Espinosa’s exploration of a young woman’s search for love and self in Manhattan. Set in the late 1950’s, Adrianne, a young girl from Texas, wanders the city and has sex indiscriminately with strangers. Her relationship with a Cuban-American artist, Alfredo, leads to further degradation as she agrees to work as a hooker in order to support his work as a painter....
About Maria
MARIA ESPINOSA is a novelist, poet, and translator as well as a teacher. Her publications include four novels : Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew, Dark Plums, Longing, which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and Dying Unfinished...
Connections
Causes Maria Espinosa Supports
Amnesty International, KPFA, anything to ameliorate homelessness and to make shelters more livable
Maria’s Favorite Books
The Stranger - Camus, A Season in the Life of Emmanuel - Marie Claire Blaise, Under a Glass Bell (stories) - Anais Nin,