Description
The year is 1982 and the Mayan genocide is at its bloodiest. Ava, the daughter of a Ladino meat-shop owner and his bed-ridden wife, marries a Mayan radish farmer known as “K.” After K disappears alongside thousands of indigenous Maya,

The year is 1982 and the Mayan genocide is at its bloodiest. Ava, the daughter of a Ladino meat-shop owner and his bed-ridden wife, marries a Mayan radish farmer known as “K.” After K disappears alongside thousands of indigenous Maya, Ava hides with their daughter, Olivia, inside their cornstalk house in the town of Peña Blanca. When Olivia is infected with lesions, Ava must venture outside for the first time in months and bear witness to the lingering spirit of the disappeared. Inspired by the unrelenting immigrant spirit and one nation’s own brokenness, The Quiet Yellowing of Birds is a novel interspersed between Ava’s privileged past and her harrowing present, between the highlands of Guatemala, the refugee camps of Campeche, and the cacti-lined cul-de-sacs of Arizona. Written in both the past and present tense, this novel is a reflection of Guatemala’s fractured narrative, of the nonlinear immigrant experience.
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    Title
    • The quiet yellowing of birds
    Contributors
    Date Created
    2017
    Subjects
    Resource Type
  • Text
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    Note
    • Includes vita
    • thesis
      Partial requirement for: M.F.A., Arizona State University, 2017
    • Field of study: English

    Citation and reuse

    Statement of Responsibility

    by María Isabel Alvarez

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