Gina María Balibrera is a Salvadoran-American writer. She has an MFA in Prose from the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program, where she was also a postgraduate fellow. She has been awarded grants from the Gould Center, the Rackham Institute, a Tyson Award, the Aura Estrada Prize, the Under the Volcano Sandra Cisneros Fellowship, and is currently a member of the inaugural Periplus Fellowship cohort. The Volcano Daughters is her first novel.
<p>Four of us. Lourdes, María, Cora, Lucia. We had once been five, before</p><p>Graciela left us. All of these cuentos belong to us. Trust us when we</p><p>take your hands.</p><p>Graciela is raised in the shadow of El Salvador's Izalco volcanos, dusty-</p><p>kneed and bound closely to her friends. Her life changes entirely when a</p><p>messenger from the Capital comes to claim her. At nine years old she has</p><p>been selected to work as an oracle to the country's fearsome dictator, who</p><p>believes she is a muse capable of foreseeing the future of El Salvador.</p><p>Brought to the city, far from her mother and friends, Graciela is introduced to</p><p>Consuelo, the sister she’s never known. Consuelo is wilful, talented and</p><p>desirous, and despite their differences the girls are a small fortress within the</p><p>dictator’s regime.</p><p>La Matanza - the brutal massacre that tore through El Salvador in 1932 - will</p><p>change their lives, and their country, forever. But neither ever gives up hope</p><p>that they might be reunited once more. Narrated by a chorus of victims of the</p><p>massacre - ghost girls who have died, but who have not yet finished telling</p><p>their story - The Volcano Daughters is an unforgettable story about</p><p>resilience, reinvention and sisterhood.</p>