Volcano Daughters

Graciela grows up in the shadow of the Izalco volcanoes in El Salvador, close to her friends and used to a dusty, outdoor childhood. When she is nine, a messenger arrives from the Capital to take her away. She has been chosen to serve as an oracle to the country's feared dictator, who believes she is a muse able to foresee El Salvador's future.

Taken to the city and separated from her mother and friends, Graciela meets Consuelo, a sister she never knew she had. Consuelo is headstrong, talented and full of desire. Despite their differences, the two girls form a small refuge for each other inside the dictator's regime. Then comes La Matanza, the brutal massacre that swept through El Salvador in 1932, which changes their lives and their country for good. Even so, neither sister stops hoping to find the other again.

The story is told by a chorus of ghost girls, victims of the massacre who have died but have not finished telling their tale. They introduce themselves as Lourdes, María, Cora and Lucia, once five in number before Graciela left them, and they call their stories cuentos. The novel is about resilience, reinvention and sisterhood.