Retribution

Synopsis

When Vancouver-based artist Tania receives a letter suggesting that her biological father may not be the man she has always known as such, her world turns upside down. As she struggles to understand the implications of this news and delves into her family's complex past, Tania discovers the ultimate retribution that her life represents.
Narrated by Tania's mother, Sol, and her grandmother, Soledad, Retribution spans over seventy years in the life of the Martinez family, from their daily existence before the 1973 military coup to the horror that ensued; their flight to Canada as political refugees, and back to Chile again as Sol joins the underground resistance movement to the dictatorship and looks for the remains of her disappeared husband.
Uplifting, forceful and unflinching, Retribution evocatively charts a family's journey of struggle and survival from one home to the next as it pays tribute to the fortitude of mother-daughter-granddaughter relationships, and celebrates the triumph of beauty and dignity over darkness and horror.

About the Author

Carmen Rodríguez was born in Chile and came to Canada following the military coup of 1973. Making her home in Vancouver, Rodríguez works as a writer, educator and journalist. Her publications to date include a collection of poetry, Guerra Prolongada / Protracted War, and a collection of short stories, De cuerpo entero / and a body to remember with, which was nominated for the city of Vancouver Book Award (1998) and received honourable mention in the City of Santiago Literary Awards for the Spanish version (1998). Her work is the subject of numerous critical studies and is used widely in college and university courses related to Latin American and Canadian literatures.

Reviews

I was in Chile three years after the assassination attempt against Pinochet, when the catchword amongst friends was still casi lo matan—they almost killed him. Carmen Rodriquez has imagined a worse fate. She has written a stunning and heart-wrenching work of fiction about several generations of Chilean women whose histories revolve around the coup and dictatorship. Retribution is a rich tapestry, epic in scope, painstaking in its detail, and an important reminder that while forgetting is not an option, love and decency are the ultimate revenge against violence.
—Gary Geddes

An emotionally complex, riveting tale of three generations of Chilean women. Although they are torn apart, like their homeland, by politics and violence, they are ultimately, and more inextricably, bound by their love. Retribution is a beautiful, affecting debut. Brava!
—Cristina García, author of The Lady Matador's Hotel and Dreaming in Cuban

Retribution is a complex and deeply moving work. It is a saga of love, courage, determination, and acceptance, in which three generations of women confront political upheaval and subsequent repression, find strength and consolation in their friends, lovers, and family, and link together their lives in Chile and Canada, two countries whose histories have become increasingly intertwined. Carmen Rodríguez brings a warm, human, yet realistic voice to the tragedy of the Pinochet coup d'état and the inspiring resilience of the Chilean people.
—Hugh Hazelton, 2006 winner of the Governor General's Award for translation

Retribution is a love-laden novel that cuts through the pain of a country; an intimate voice with the ability to make words visible and credible; a sensitive and skilful narrator who knows how to tell a Chilean story and turn it into one which will also captivate international readers.
—Antonio Skármeta, author of Burning Patience (The Postman) and The Dancer and the Thief.

In Carmen Rodriguez's Retribution, we are invited to witness and celebrate the human spirit which, despite the relentless cruelty of the Pinochet regime, remains persistently dignified and undefeated. Each sensuous detail in Retribution—spanning the domestic to the poetic—is a lyrical tribute to the strength of women whose love has transformed their suffering. Candidly moving, pulsing with a deep love for the land and its inhabitants, Retribution sings of the tenderness of those who love and are loved, refusing to surrender vibrant legacies to the poison of hatred.
—Lydia Kwa, author of The Colours of Heroines