Stones for Ibarra ANNOTATION
Two Americans, Richard and Sara Everton, are the only foreigners in Ibarra. They live among people who both respect and misunderstand them, and gradually, the villagers--at first enigmas to the Evertons--come to teach them much about life and the relentless tide of fate.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Richard and Sara Everton mortgage, sell and borrow, leave friends and country to settle in the Mexican village of Ibarra. They intend to spend the rest of their lives here, in a place neither of them has seen, to speak a language neither of them know. Their dream is to reopen Richard's grandfather's abandoned copper mine.
In a few short months work is advancing in the mine and their home is ready -- then Richard learns he has six years to live.
Richard's determination to make the mine and village prosper matches Sara's effort to deny the diagnosis. While Richard measures time, she rejects its passage.
This novel, Harriet Doerr's first, was written when she was in her seventies. It won the American Book Award.
FROM THE CRITICS
AudioFile - Deborah M. Locke
Harriet Doerr's spare, poetic novel concerns a North American couple who settle in a remote Mexican village to re-open an old, family-owned copper mine. It's delivered with rare sensitivity by Barbara Rosenblat. Her exquisite narration lends an elegant weightlessness to the text while occasional, well-accented Spanish phrases add color. The precise, measured pace allows the listener to contemplate the novel's imagery and the author's pearl-like prose while it evokes the heat and slow tempo of life south of the border. With gravity and subtle humor, both author and narrator illuminate the drama of small human events and the preciousness of time passing. This memorable and thoroughly satisfying performance will resonate long after the tape ends. D.M.L. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner �AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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