The Aguero Sisters

Cristina Garcia

From Shelf: The 1998 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist

The tale of two sisters haunted by the death of their parents and separated by the Cuban revolution. Dovetailed with the story of the two sisters is that of their parents - a story haunted by a single event; in 1948 Ignacio and Blanca Aguero explored the Zapata Swamp on horseback.

This is the story of two sisters haunted by the deaths of their parents and separated by the Cuban revolution. Constancia Aguero lives in Miami with her husband. Her sister Reina has remained in Cuba, but after a freak accident she decides to travel to Miami to find her sister. Dovetailed with the story of the two sisters is that of their parents - a story haunted by a single event; in 1948, naturalists Ignacio and Blanca Aguero explored the Zapata Swamp on horseback, on a bird collecting trip. Ignacio, aiming at the hummingbird hovering near the nape of his wife neck, shoots her and she is killed at once and he `carries his wife seventeen miles to the nearest village and began to tell his lies'. It is the daughter's unravelling of these lies, together with the story of Ignacio and Blanca's courtship that haunts this powerful and atmospheric novel. Told against a political backdrop of revolution and change, The Aguero Sisters is an engaging story of love, loyalty and deception - but also asks painful questions about homeland, allegiance, desire, identity and memory.

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