Seventy Times Seven. Ricardo Elizondo.

Seventy Times Seven. By Ricardo Elizondo. Geoff Hargreaves, Translator. ISBN: 978-1482319231. $22.95.

“Why hurry to give a welcome to grief?” asks Carolina. In the 1880’s a Mexican family splits in two; Carolina remains in rural Mexico, while her two brothers head north to what will become urban Texas. Still connected but ever more separate, the three siblings pass through triumph and tragedy, laughter and tears, births and deaths, love and hate, as their genetic and cultural heritages adapt to or resist the challenges of changing and unchanging environments. This is a vivid family saga, told with stirring simplicity, where the past wrestles with the future and character is often destiny “I am glad to see that this classic of modern Mexican fiction is at last available in English."