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More About the Author
Product Description
Harold Pinter
'A wonderfully free and original talent'
Salman Rushdie
'The best autobiography I've read in years ... It's a book to relish, to read and re-read. Unforgettable'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was recommended this book by a friend and would happily recommend it to anyone. It's an autobiography of Gioconda Belli, an extraordinary Nicaraguan woman. Not only does it follow the political side of her life, following her years as a guerrilla fighter and many years she was forced to spend in exile. It also shows her personal life as a mother and as a woman. As I am too young to remember the struggle in South America I found it fascinating to read about how they overthrew the dictatorship and tried to fight off US control.
The book is beautifully written and a real page turner. Even if you have no interest in the political side of it I would still recommend it as an interesting read following a woman's personal struggles in love, war and motherhood.
The book is beautifully written and a real page turner. Even if you have no interest in the political side of it I would still recommend it as an interesting read following a woman's personal struggles in love, war and motherhood.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Nicaraguan poet and novelist lays herself bare in this engrossing autobiography. Born into upper middle class society under the US blessed and supported dictatorship of the Somoza family, Gioconda Belli grew up devoloping an awareness of the social and economic inequalities that plauged her country and many others in that region. She recounts her first tentative steps in the underground resistance movement, that over the years led to her becoming one of the leaders of the 1979 revolution that toppled the brutal Somoza regime. She also tells us of her many passionate love affairs, many of which conducted whilst trying to avoid the tentacles of Somoza's secret police, capture meaning torture and probable death. This is the very personal story of a romantic and a revolutionary written with a command of language and emotion that shines through in this excellent translation. Her memoir is at times exciting, the reader can sometimes feel the fear, her accounts of life in the higher political circles after the revolution are both revealing and amusing, especially when describing the macho instincts of some of the revolutionary leaders of the region. The feelings of anti-climax as some of the revolutionary fervour was lost to political expediency are also written with great candour. Truely a very remarkable, but at the same time, very human and passonate woman.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an autobiography. Gioconda Belli was born in the 1950's into a wealthy family in Nicaragua, although not part of the ruling class benefitting under the 40+ year dictatorship of the Somoza family.
Even as a child she is struck by the gross inequality of the rich and poor. She rebels against the limited roles determined for her in life as a woman. In her early 20's she becomes involved in the illegal Sandinsta movement, risking her life to support the dream of a Nicaragua free from the dictatorship and corruption of Somoza as well as the ideology of equality and basic services for the poor.
It is really exciting as a personal account of her turbulent love life, risks to help the rebel movement, exile from her country, the murder, torture and death of friends in the struggle, trying to juggle motherhood and family responsibilities, whilst also a subjective commentary on political movements of the time and the individuals involved in them. She met Fidel Castro and the Panamanian leader. She personally knew all the Sandinistan leaders including Daniel Ortega who was to be the country's President twice. It is also fascinating to see how her standing and viewpoint was affected by the fact she is female.
Ultimately she falls in love and marries an American at a time when the American's were funding a war against Nicaragua. This presents all of it's own sets of problems.
It would make a brilliant movie - action, politics, romance, rebellion, family trauma and it is all true.
Having spent a year living in Nicaragua, this was a fantastic book to read as suddenly it threw a new light on some of the current day to day political interactions and players. It is a real page turner and you don't need to know anything about Nicaragua to enjoy it.
I gave 'The Death of Ben Linder' 5 stars, but 'The Country Under My Skin' is much better. If you are only likely to read one book about Nicaragua let it be this one.
Even as a child she is struck by the gross inequality of the rich and poor. She rebels against the limited roles determined for her in life as a woman. In her early 20's she becomes involved in the illegal Sandinsta movement, risking her life to support the dream of a Nicaragua free from the dictatorship and corruption of Somoza as well as the ideology of equality and basic services for the poor.
It is really exciting as a personal account of her turbulent love life, risks to help the rebel movement, exile from her country, the murder, torture and death of friends in the struggle, trying to juggle motherhood and family responsibilities, whilst also a subjective commentary on political movements of the time and the individuals involved in them. She met Fidel Castro and the Panamanian leader. She personally knew all the Sandinistan leaders including Daniel Ortega who was to be the country's President twice. It is also fascinating to see how her standing and viewpoint was affected by the fact she is female.
Ultimately she falls in love and marries an American at a time when the American's were funding a war against Nicaragua. This presents all of it's own sets of problems.
It would make a brilliant movie - action, politics, romance, rebellion, family trauma and it is all true.
Having spent a year living in Nicaragua, this was a fantastic book to read as suddenly it threw a new light on some of the current day to day political interactions and players. It is a real page turner and you don't need to know anything about Nicaragua to enjoy it.
I gave 'The Death of Ben Linder' 5 stars, but 'The Country Under My Skin' is much better. If you are only likely to read one book about Nicaragua let it be this one.
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