Description

From the verdant hills of Rio de Janeiro to Evita Perón’s glittering Buenos Aires, from the haven of a corner butcher shop to the halls of the United States Embassy in Montevideo, this gripping novel—at once expansive and lush with detail—examines the intertwined fates of a continent and a family in upheaval. The Invisible Mountain is a deeply intimate exploration of the search for love and authenticity in the lives of three women, and a penetrating portrait of the small, tenacious nation of Uruguay, shaken by the gales of the twentieth century.

On the first day of the year 1900, a small town deep in the Uruguayan countryside gathers to witness a miracle—the mysterious reappearance of a lost infant, Pajarita—and unravel its portents for the century. Later, as a young woman in the capital city—Montevideo, brimming with growth and promise—Pajarita begins a lineage of fiercely independent women with her enamored husband, Ignazio, a young immigrant from Italy and the inheritor of both a talent for boat making and a latent, more sinister family trait. Their daughter, Eva, a fragile yet ferociously stubborn beauty intent on becoming a poet, overcomes an early, shattering betrayal to embark on a most unconventional path toward personal and artistic fulfillment. And Eva’s daughter, Salomé, awakening to both her sensuality and political convictions amid the violent turmoil of the late 1960s, finds herself dangerously attracted to a cadre of urban guerrilla rebels, despite the terrible consequences of such principled fearlessness.

Provocative, heartbreaking and ultimately life-affirming, The Invisible Mountain is a poignant celebration of the potency of familial love, the will to survive in the most hopeless of circumstances, and, above all, the fierce, fortifying connection between mother and daughter.

About the Author

Carolina De Robertis was raised in England, Switzerland, and California by Uruguayan parents. Her fiction and literary translations have appeared in ColorLines, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Zoetrope: All-Story, among others. She is the recipient of a 2008 Hedgebrook Residency for Women Authoring Change and the translator of the Chilean novella Bonsái by Alejandro Zambra. She lives in Oakland, California.

Praise for The Invisible Mountain…

“The Invisible Mountain does what the best, most readable novels do: it tells a compelling human story about identity while also quietly evoking a place and time.” —O, The Oprah Magazine (in “10 Terrific Reads of 2009”)
 
“Passionate and beautiful…De Robertis has created a vivid new landscape, both internal and external, and provided the reader with a glimpse of the country of her ancestry, a land haunted by a mountain that is not really a mountain.” —Lynn Rosen, The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“The Invisible Mountain is a poetic and absorbing generational epic that pays tribute to a colorful culture and amazing history.  De Robertis is a promising young writer, and we can only hope there is much more to come from her.” —Rebecca Stropoli, BookPage
 
“A galloping saga...hugely ambitious.  De Robertis [has] an apparently bottomless gift for lush metaphor.  The Invisible Mountain winds up being the kind of novel you stay up late to finish and lie awake thinking about.  It is breathless, full of tenderness...its ensemble of women and men [are] bent on living every moment as if on fire, answering the great question of life (how, then, to live?) as passionately, with as much teeth-rattling urgency, as they humanly can.” —Joan Frank, San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Enchanting, funny and heartbreaking…Beautifully written yet deliberate in its storytelling, [The Invisible Mountain is] an extraordinary first effort whose epic scope and deft handling reverberate with the deep pull of ancestry, the powerful influence of one’s country and the sacrifices of reinvention.” —Publishers Weekly, (starred review)
 
“De Robertis is a skilled storyteller, but it is her use of language—from the precision of poetry to the sensuality of sex—that makes this literary debut so exceptional.”
—Michele Leber, Booklist (starred review)
 
“Beautifully wrought…Miracles, poetry, and guerilla fighters march through the twentieth century in De Robertis's winning debut…Dense and lush, filled with lyrical storytelling.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 
“An incantatory debut…This visionary book beautifully, bravely breaks open all the old secrets.” —Lisa Shea, Elle
 
“The brainiest dynastic novel in years. A high-end story full of sex, politics and family.” —Sara Nelson, The Daily Beast
“Deeply engrossing…This novel makes us ponder the struggles of our own grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, and gives us the compassion to recognize that the links between us are deeper than the differences.  A fierce, wise, and tender tale.” —Anita Amirrezvani, author of The Blood of Flowers
“With grace, fluidity and a modicum of magic, an extraordinary and passionate family navigate the social and political landscapes of South America. The Invisible Mountain is a wonderful story; and De Robertis is a writer to watch.” —Matthew Aaron Goodman, author of Hold Love Strong
 
“Carolina De Robertis is a writer of uncanny wisdom and an alchemist of words. With The Invisible Mountain, she has introduced us to an unfamiliar landscape of harsh contradictions and of the heavy burden history often plays in the shaping and altering of lives on the brink of change. The Invisible Mountain introduces a gifted literary voice mapping the uncharted territories of the Americas in a fearless new way.” —Alex Espinoza, author of Still Water Saints
 
“With this marvelous novel, Carolina De Robertis brings to vivid life the history and culture of Uruguay, a country too-long neglected in the consciousness of the Americas.  Bold, passionate, and filled with songs both ecstatic and tragic, De Robertis tells the stories of three generations of women whose lives transcend the ordinary.” —Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban
 
“A lyrical, haunting story about three generations of an extraordinary family, and an evocative tribute to the endurance of women and the spirit of poetry.” —Diana Gabaldon, author of The Outlander series