BEFORE WE WERE FREE

Book ID/图书代码： 12560510B40012

English Summary/英文概要： Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship.

Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew behind.

From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girl’s struggle to be free.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 《在我们自由之前》（Before We Were Free, 2002）堪称多米尼加版的《安妮日记》，以1960—1961年的多米尼加为背景探讨极权政治对青少年的影响，颂扬人们对自由不屈不挠的追求。

Awards/获奖情况：In her first YA novel, Alvarez (How the Garc¡a Girls Lost Their Accents) proves as gifted at writing for adolescents as she is for adults. Here she brings her warmth, sensitivity and eye for detail to a volatile setting the Dominican Republic of her childhood, during the 1960-1961 attempt to overthrow Trujillo’s dictatorship. The story opens as 12-year-old narrator Anita watches her cousins, the Garc¡a girls, abruptly leave for the U.S. with their parents; Anita’s own immediate family are now the only ones occupying the extended family’s compound. Alvarez relays the terrors of the Trujillo regime in a muted but unmistakable tone; for a while, Anita’s parents protect her (and, by extension, readers), both from the ruler’s criminal and even murderous ways and also from knowledge of their involvement in the planned coup d’‚tat. The perspective remains securely Anita’s, and Alvarez’s pitch-perfect narration will immerse readers in Anita’s world. Her crush on the American boy next door is at first as important as knowing that the maid is almost certainly working for the secret police and spying on them; later, as Anita understands the implications of the adult remarks she overhears, her voice becomes anxious and the tension mounts. When the revolution fails, Anita’s father and uncle are immediately arrested, and she and her mother go underground, living in secret in their friends’ bedroom closet a sequence the author renders with palpable suspense. Alvarez conveys the hopeful ending with as much passion as suffuses the tragedies that precede it. A stirring work of art. Ages 12-up.---From Publishers Weekly

Grade 6-10-By the morning of her 12th birthday, in December, 1960, Anita de la Torre’s comfortable childhood in her home in the Dominican Republic is a thing of the past. The political situation for opponents of the dictator Rafael Trujillo has become so dangerous that nearly all of her relatives have emigrated to the U.S., leaving only her uncle, T’o Toni, somewhere in hiding, and her parents, still determined to carry on the resistance. Over the next year, the girl becomes increasingly aware of the nature of the political situation and her family’s activities. Once her father’s cotorrita, or talkative parrot, she grows increasingly silent. When the dictator is assassinated, her father and uncle are arrested, her older brother is sheltered in the Italian Embassy, and Anita and her mother must go into hiding as well. Diary entries written by the child while in hiding will remind readers of Anne Frank’s story. They will find Anita’s interest in boys and her concerns about her appearance, even when she and her mother can see no one, entirely believable. Readers will be convinced by the voice of this Spanish-speaking teenager who tells her story entirely in the present tense. Like Anita’s brother Mund’n, readers will bite their nails as the story moves to its inexorable conclusion.---Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC, From School Library Journal

About the Author/作者介绍： Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic before emigrating to the United States at the age of 10. She now lives in Vermont, where she is a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College.
Julia Alvarez原籍多明尼加共和國，幼年移居美國。她承襲的西班牙語傳統為她的英語文學創作增添了濃烈的色彩。于1971年獲佛蒙特州米德爾伯裏學院(Middlebury College)學士學位，1975年獲錫拉丘斯大學(Syracus University)寫作專業碩士學位。她擔任佈雷德洛夫作家創作班(Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference)的教師，經常為學生講課。她還在菲利普斯‧安多瓦學院(Phillips Andover Academy)、佛蒙特大學(University of Vermont)、華盛頓哥倫比亞特區喬治華盛頓大學(George Washington University, Washington, D.C.)和伊利諾大學烏爾瓦納分校(University of Illinois at Urbana)任教。她目前在米德爾伯裏學院(Middlebury College)擔任訪問作家。
作品有小説《加西亞家的姑娘不再帶口音》(How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents)]、小説《蝴蝶時代》(In the Time of the Butterflies)、詩集《彼岸》(The Other Side)、《回歸故里：新舊詩集》(Homecoming: New and Collected Poems)、小説《我！》(YO!)、《以莎樂美的名義》(In The Name of Salome)、《守護內心的女人》(The Woman I Kept to Myself)等。

Format:MASS MARKET TRADE PAPERBACK

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：Alfred A. Knopf, English and World English 2002, Random House Audio: 2004; Spanish U.S. 2004; Brazil: Companhia das Letras, 2004; China: Yilin, 2014, simplified characters; Italy: Ragazzi, 2003; Japan: Goblin Shobo, 2013; Korea: Munhakdongne, 2009; Netherlands: Luitingh/Sijthoff/Piramide, 2003

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