Read this when
María
He came home to her. He was too late. Latin America's most famous love story is really a grief story. 🖤
Who it's for
The whole novel is told as a memory by Efraín, and the reader senses from early on that it will end in loss, so reading it is a slow, shared experience of anticipatory grief.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Jorge Isaacs's 1867 novel, a romantic novel of customs (costumbrista) set in Colombia's Cauca Valley, tells the love story of the cousins Efraín and María. They declare their love after Efraín comes home from six years of study in Bogotá, but María falls ill. Efraín goes to London to study medicine, and news of her condition calls him home.
Where to find it
Public domain in the US (1867; Rollo Ogden's 1890 English translation is also public domain); free online in Spanish and in the Ogden translation (Project Gutenberg / Internet Archive). Modern Spanish.
Before you start
Heads up: A young woman's death from illness.
Age: Ages 12+
Life has become richer by the love that has been lost.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 223
