pagesofjulia

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat.

“The 1980 murder of four American women – three of them Catholic nuns – by the US-trained El Savadorian military shocked the American public and set off a decade of debate over Cold War policy in Latin America. The women themselves became symbols and martyrs, short of context and background.” (From the back of the book.) A Radical Faith undertakes the story of one of those four women in particular.

Here are a few lines from the book itself to whet your appetite:

Maura was shocked by the discrepancy between the wealth of the mining company and the poverty of her students. But questioning La Luz wasn’t her job or the job of the priests and nuns. They were in Siuna to instill faith, to cultivate a love of God and obedience to the precepts of the church. And anyway, they would remind themselves, the company provided electricity…

(At this point she is working in Nicaragua, not yet El Salvador.) I chose this teaser because it feels like a turning point for the character of Sister Maura. I’m less than 100 pages in, but I feel like what is coming is an important realization she’s about to have: that it is in fact her job to seek justice on earth for the people she’s traveled south to help. We’ll see if I’m right.

This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.

Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: nonfiction |