What do you think?
Rate this book
The Day It Rained : A Novella
Pancha never imagined that rain could cause such grief. An early morning rain changed her life foreve, as it did for almost everyone in the little shantytown where they eked out an existence. Hers is the story of the struggle to keep hope alive.
Based on events that occureed at the beginning of 1984 when the Pacific Nino current brought heavy rain and flooding to Chimbote, a fishing port on the northern Peruvian coast.
Based on events that occureed at the beginning of 1984 when the Pacific Nino current brought heavy rain and flooding to Chimbote, a fishing port on the northern Peruvian coast.
110 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 16, 2009
13 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 21, 2016
Richard is a man I respect and admire with whom I occasionally get to spend a morning with at the center where we both volunteer. He is a priest who's spent a part of his life working in Peru and this book is a somewhat fictional account of his time there. The characters are fictional, but the backdrop is real. There was a devastating earthquake in 1970 that tore down the side of the second of the Ande's highest peak, destroying a whole village and killing over 30 000 thousand people. Richard was in Peru ten years later and witnessed firsthand the aftermath of this enormous tragedy.
I didn't know what to expect when he gave me a copy of his novella, but I knew it would be interesting and since I'm curious about places and people I don't know well, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn. The writing is crisp and detailed, almost like a travel book, revealing all of the little details I needed to understand about how the people of Chimbote live, what they eat, how they earn a living, what their customs and traditions are, etc. Richard delivers all that.
The short tale is told through a few characters, most of them women, and that's what surprised me. I suppose I had some prejudice going in because of the fact that he is a priest:-) But no, this is such a feminist book! Pancha, the main character, is nines months pregnant, a single mom, and the leader of her little women group. She is such a beautiful strong soul. She wakes up one morning to find that it rained all night and the village is flooded, her roof caved in, and all the crops are ruined. Her people have already suffered so much, but in the course of that day, we follow Pancha and her friends as they confront labor unions, politicians and relief groups to organize their survival.
I really enjoyed it and would add it to many lists of books about women we don't hear enough about in literature.
I didn't know what to expect when he gave me a copy of his novella, but I knew it would be interesting and since I'm curious about places and people I don't know well, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn. The writing is crisp and detailed, almost like a travel book, revealing all of the little details I needed to understand about how the people of Chimbote live, what they eat, how they earn a living, what their customs and traditions are, etc. Richard delivers all that.
The short tale is told through a few characters, most of them women, and that's what surprised me. I suppose I had some prejudice going in because of the fact that he is a priest:-) But no, this is such a feminist book! Pancha, the main character, is nines months pregnant, a single mom, and the leader of her little women group. She is such a beautiful strong soul. She wakes up one morning to find that it rained all night and the village is flooded, her roof caved in, and all the crops are ruined. Her people have already suffered so much, but in the course of that day, we follow Pancha and her friends as they confront labor unions, politicians and relief groups to organize their survival.
I really enjoyed it and would add it to many lists of books about women we don't hear enough about in literature.
Displaying 1 of 1 review