Winds of Maracaibo

By Maria Elena Moran

With Venezuela collapsing under the corruption and incompetence of the Chavista revolution, Nina leaves her daughter and mother behind in Maracaibo and heads to Brazil with the goal of rebuilding her life and eventually reuniting her family. Back in Maracaibo, Camilo, her ex, reappears and, disillusioned with the revolution to which he has dedicated his life, hatches a plan to take his and Nina’s 12-year-old daughter to the US.  He unleashes an epic battle between the once-married couple.  Written in Spanish by a Venezuelan novelist and translated to English, the book exposes the many ordeals of migration and the extraordinary bitterness of a failed marriage with a dollop of Latin American magical realism.