In its moment of great splendor the novel was held as a mirror of society: Merc Rodoreda shatters that mirror in this, her most ambitious novel, which tells its story in brilliant fragments, a vision reflected and refracted and finally coming together in a richly articulated mosaic of life. Through this Broken Mirror, the reader sees events and characters spanning three generations and composing a kaleidoscopic family history ranging over six decades and turning upon events both intimate and historic--most notably the Spanish Civil War.

Opening with Teresa Goday, the lovely young fishmonger's daughter married to a wealthy old man, the story shifts from one perspective to another, reflecting from myriad angles the founding of a matriarchal dynasty--and its eventual, seemingly inevitable disintegration. A family saga extending from the prosperous Barcelona of the 1870s to the advent of the Franco dictatorship, A Broken Mirror is finally also a novel about the inexorable passing of time.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 04/01/2006
ISBN: 9780803290075
Pages: 218
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.70w x 0.51d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2006 pg. 108