“This truly engaging story pulls the reader in from the first page.”
—VOYA
“Alvarez’s descriptions of nature and character are both naturalistic and poetic, creating a psychological novel-with-a-novel that is intense and riveting.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“Alvarez depicts her two heroines with insightful empathy and creates vivid supporting characters. … The narrative culminates in a compelling scene in which greed and ineptitude trump idealism, dramatizing the question of whether the means are ever justified by the ends.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In this cleverly structured and seductive page-turner, Alvarez uses romance and suspense to leaven probing inquiries into plagues, poverty, and politics; altruism and self-aggrandizement; good intentions gone wrong; and the way stories are told.”
—Booklist