Orange Wine - by Esperanza Hope Snyder (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

While I was giving birth to Lucy, my husband, Alessandro, was lying in bed with my sister Isabel.

And thus, Inés Camargo--the youngest daughter of an Italian nobleman and a Colombian poet--begins to speak in a bitter, sweet voice.

Against the backdrop of early twentieth-century Colombia, where the Catholic Church exercises total control over women, Orange Wine weaves an unforgettable story of sisterhood, love, passion, and betrayal. Isolated in a society that opposes her desires, Inés struggles with her identity as a mother, artist, sister, lover, and woman. Her choices are stark: accept her duty to her family or embark on a sensuous journey of self-discovery. Each path will cost her--or those she loves--something dear.

Mirroring the alchemical process of turning oranges into wine, Inés must create a new life from a bitter pith, pressing sweetness from life's agonies as she struggles toward artistic freedom and feminine awakening.

Review Quotes

"From the opening sentences, I fell under the spell of Esperanza Hope Snyder's enchanting heroine. Inés is talented, passionate, resilient, and a sublime storyteller. Unlike her sisters, she wants a larger life, and gradually, weaving her way between town and city, husband and lover, Colombia and Europe, she finds her way to making fragrant soap and gorgeous paintings. Orange Wine is an absorbing and delightful novel." --Margot Livesey, The New York Times bestselling author of The Road from Belhaven

"Orange Wine transports you back to early-twentieth-century Colombia, then spreads its magic across themes of sisterhood, betrayal, love, loss, and--most importantly--hope. This is a delicious novel." --Ann Hood, The New York Times bestselling author of The Knitting Circle

"Orange Wine, like its extraordinary heroine, is at once charming and gritty and undeniably compelling--a fable of femininity suffused with love." --Robert Cohen, author of Amateur Barbarians and Inspired Sleep