Pilsen Arts & Community House

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May Book Pick - “A Woman of Endurance”


A Woman of Endurance
by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

Available in Audio in English and Spanish

A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity. 

Readers are invited to join Pola in her journey to healing. From the sadistic barbarity of her first experiences, she moves on to receive compassion and support from a revitalizing new community. Along the way, she learns to recognize and embrace the many faces of love—a mother’s love, a daughter’s love, a sister’s love, a love of community, and the self-love that she must recover before she can offer herself to another. It is ultimately, a novel of the triumph of the human spirit even under the most brutal of conditions.


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Engage with our online PACH Book Club Community. Feel free to share your thoughts as you are reading the book this month. Ask questions to find out what others think about interesting and provoking parts of the book as you read along together. Use this blog platform to have ongoing monthly discussions on each book. Don’t be shy! Be the first to COMMENT!