Product Description

An ALA Notable Book. Julia Alvarez's eagerly awaited second novel is a powerful story of courage, innocence, and political martyrdom in the Hispanic Caribbean. Based on actual events--the death of three sisters on November 25, 1960--the novel immerses us in an epoch in the life of the Dominican Republic. The "Butterflies," as they were known, lived daringly and dangerously under a regime that imprisoned, tortured, and killed with impunity. "Brimming with warmth and vitality . . . Mesmerizing."--Kirkus Reviews, starred; "Potent and luminous."--Philadelphia Inquirer. A BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB and QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB SELECTION.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #581896 in Books
• Published on: 1993-12-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 344 pages

From Amazon.com
From the author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents comes this tale of courage and sisterhood set in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. A skillful blend of fact and fiction, In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government. Alvarez breathes life into these historical figures--known as "las mariposas," or "the butterflies," in the underground--as she imagines their teenage years, their gradual involvement with the revolution, and their terror as their dissentience is uncovered.

Alvarez's controlled writing perfectly captures the mounting tension as "the butterflies" near their horrific end. The novel begins with the recollections of Dede, the fourth and surviving sister, who fears abandoning her routines and her husband to join the movement. Alvarez also offers the perspectives of the other sisters: brave and outspoken Minerva, the family's political ringleader; pious Patria, who forsakes her faith to join her sisters after witnessing the atrocities of the tyranny; and the baby sister, sensitive Maria Teresa, who, in a series of diaries, chronicles her allegiance to Minerva and the physical and spiritual anguish of prison life.

In the Time of the Butterflies is an American Library Association Notable Book and a 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.

From Publishers Weekly
During the last days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, three young women, members of a conservative, pious Catholic family, who had become committed to the revolutionary overthrow of the regime, were ambushed and assassinated as they drove back from visiting their jailed husbands. Thus martyred, the Mirabal sisters have become mythical figures in their country, where they are known as las mariposas (the butterflies), from their underground code names. Herself a native of the Dominican Republic, Alvarez ( How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents ) has fictionalized their story in a narrative that starts slowly but builds to a gripping intensity. Each of the girls--Patria, Minerva and Maria Terese (Mate) Mirabal--speaks in her own voice, beginning in their girlhood in the 1940s; their surviving sister, Dede, frames the narrative with her own tale of suffering and dedication to their memory. To differentiate their personalities and the ways they came to acquire revolutionary fervor, Alvarez takes the risk of describing their early lives in leisurely detail, somewhat slowing the narrative momentum. In particular, the giddy, childish diary entries of Mate, the youngest, may seem irritatingly mundane at first, but in time Mate's heroism becomes the most moving of all, as the sisters endure the arrests of their husbands, their own imprisonment and the inexorable progress of Trujillo's revenge. Alvarez captures the terrorized atmosphere of a police state, in which people live under the sword of terrible fear and atrocities cannot be acknowledged. As the sisters' energetic fervor turns to anguish, Alvarez conveys their courage and their desperation, and the full import of their tragedy. 40,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo; reprint rights to NAL; 20-city author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Alvarez's award-winning first novel (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, LJ 5/1/91) is more than matched by her second. Butterflies is based on the lives of the four Mirabel sisters (code name: "Mariposas," that is, butterflies), three of whom were martyred in 1960 during the liberation of the Dominican Republic from the dictator Trujillo. Through the surviving sister, Dede, as well as memories of Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa, we discover the compelling forces behind each sister's role in the struggle for freedom. As Alvarez says "A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart." Though murder, torture, and imprisonment are ever-present, she wisely choses to focus on the personal lives of these young wives and mothers, full of love, beauty, and, especially, hope. Highly recommended for its luminescence and relevance.
Rebecca S. Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

My favorite book...
This has to be one of my favorite books, if not my overall favorite. I am a huge Alvarez fan, and have read most of her works. I found this book in particular to be truly inspirational. It made me want to go out there and become a revolutionary! But while we all may not go to that extreme, it will at least make you want to appreciate each day to it's fullest, and it's a good history lesson at that.

A Wonderful Story of Courage
In the Time of the Butterflies, a fictional work, is based loosely on the true story of the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic. Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa(Mate) were involved in the underground movement to overthrow the government and rid their country of the cruel dictator Trujillo. In this movement their code name was "las mariposas" which means "the butterflies" in English. The book begins with their personal lives and then shows how they all became involved with the movement. This story shows their courage to stand up for freedom even though they paid the price with their lives in 1960 when Trujillo had them killed. However, this book is not just the story of Minerva, Patria, and Mate; but also the story of the fourth and oldest sister Dedé who never became involved but instead survived to tell of the bravery of her sisters and care for their children.
Although exciting to me, this book may be boring to the male reader in the beginning. This book not only tells of how the Mirabal or Butterfly sisters became national heroines of the Dominican Republic but also of their lives as normal women. Hair ribbons, clothes, and secret crushes dominate the beginning of the story, where as prison torture and gunrunning appear in the rest. Overall, though, this is a great read.

Inspirational
I absolutly loved this book!!! My mom is from the Dominican Republic and she always told me the stories of Trujillo and the Hermanas Mirabal but actually reading this book made me more aware of what when on. It made me feel so proud to be a latina woman and my heritage. It thought me that US mujeres can make a difference. I totally recommend this book to anyone.