A generational saga that mixes historical fiction with the romance and intrigue of a Latin soap opera.When Malena Sevilla’s tidy, carefully planned world collapses following her father’s mysterious suicide, she finds a lettersigned with an A”which reveals that her mother is very much alive and living in San Isidro, a quaint town tucked in the Andes Mountains. Intent on meeting her, Malena … meeting her, Malena arrives at Alameda Street and meets four sisters who couldn’t be more different from one another, but who share one thing in common: all of their names begin with an A.
To avoid a scandal, Malena assumes another woman’s identity and enters their home to discover the truth. Could her mother be Amanda, the iconoclastic widow who opens the first tango nightclub in a conservative town? Ana, the ideal housewife with a less-than-ideal past? Abigail, the sickly sister in love with a forbidden man? Or Alejandra, the artistic introvert scarred by her cousin’s murder? But living a lie will bring Malena additional problems, such as falling for the wrong man and loving a family she may lose when they learn of her deceit. Worse, her arrival threatens to expose long-buried secrets and a truth that may wreck her life forever.
Set in 1960s Ecuador, The Sisters of Alameda Street is a sweeping story of how one woman’s search for the truth of her identity forces a family to confront their own past.
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Introduced me to customs and character of the people of Ecaduro.
Very interesting story…different. Too many similar characters to keep straight. I had to keep reading back to see who they were talking about now. A nice story, but it didn’t just flow easy.
I needed a book that was engaging, but not terribly intense. This was it. The characters were great and played out well in an very interesting story. You will change your mind several times as you try to figure out which sister is Malena’s mother. Good read.
The sisters of Alameda street tells the story of Malena, a young woman who finds a letter after her father’s death that changes everything she thought she knew about her mother. All of her life Malena thought her mother had died in a car accident and so she was raised by her father and grandmother. The letter, though, shows that this wasn’t the case and her mother may, in fact, still be alive. Finding the letter sends Malena on a journey not only to a new city but to a series of events that will test what she thought she knew about her family. This journey leads her to a family with 4 sisters, all with the same initials, all of whom could be her mother.
The relationships in this book are complex and human. This is a family that houses a lot of secrets and as the outsider Malena is in a unique position to view them as both individuals and a unit. As she begins to understand them she begins to learn why her mother might have given her up and why her father and grandmother lied to her about it for her whole life.
The one thing Malena does know: Mama Bianca is her grandmother, and she embraces her as such from the moment of meeting her. She also has cousins in Claudia and Javier, but could they actually be her siblings? The mystery might be simpler if Malena just asks the sisters outright, but she quickly realizes that this could very easily cause more problems that it would solve.
I greatly enjoyed Hughe’s writing style and story. I especially liked the historical fiction aspect of it. I have never been to Ecuador, so I loved reading about the country and the culture and the customs. The book takes place both in the 60s and the 30s-40s, so I got to see a different culture through the lens of different eras.
This is a book about family, about relationships, and about a young woman figuring out who she is, both within the context of family and as an individual. I love the writing, I loved the story, and I loved going on the journey with Malena to figure out the answers to her questions.