Tales from the Town of Widows: & Chronicles from the Land of Men

From Strand Bookstore

When the small town of Mariquita, Columbia is overrun by a band of guerrilla soldiers, the town's men are forcibly recruited. Left behind are the women and two men, a priest and a young boy disguised as a girl. Mariquita quickly becomes a wasteland as the women battle their grief and their diminishing food supply. Determined to save her town, Rosalba viuda de Patino declares herself magistrate and promises to instill law and order while restoring the fledgling economy and infastructure. The women join forces and before long they have created a utopia that ironically resembles the ideal society the guerrilla group claims to promote. 'Tales from the Town of Widows' is James Canon's astonishing debut.

From the Publisher

Left behind when their husbands are forcibly recruited to fight in a civil war, the women of a small Colombian village struggle to overcome centuries of tradition to survive, a process through which they eventually create a peaceful new community that is thrown into turmoil when the men return four years later. A first novel. 50,000 first printing.