In the tradition of Allende, this is a magical novel, written in the form of an opera, and set in Seville and Mexico in the late 1800s. Act I opens in Seville. Emilio has been forced by his overbearing mother into the priesthood. Monica is a governess in a wealthy household who falls pregnant by the head of the house. A chance meeting in Seville cathedral suggests a solution to both their predicaments - they decide to marry, though it is not a love match. Emilio raises Monica's son Diego as his own, and they form a close bond over their mutual love of language, books, maps and birds. When Emilio dies, Monica reveals that he was not Diego's father. She grows ever more embittered and eventually dies, leaving Diego to pursue his true calling - his love of birds. Act 2 follows Diego's life in Mexico - his apprenticeship to an American who is mapping the birds of Mexico; his love for Sofia, the beautiful, independent daughter of a Mexican farmer; and his obsession with saving the Passenger Pigeon from extinction. The cities of Seville and Merida are so central to the narrative, and evoked so beautifully, that they are almost characters themselves. Taking in many of the stock characters that appear in the best operas - the philanderer, the wronged wife, the harassed servant, the star-crossed lovers - The Mapmaker's Opera is an original and magical novel which will appeal to lovers of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende.

Mapmakers Opera

Literature & Fiction

Gonzalez, Béa

Contemporary

Harper-perennial

A richly layered and evocative novel about the lives and loves of a family of remarkable Spanish womenSet in northern Spain from 1920 to the present, The Bitter Taste of Time is the compelling story of the Encarna women, whose lives are both tragic and beautiful. After the death of her husband, the family’s gorgeous and imposing matriarch, Maria Encarna, turns her granite house into a pensión, opening it up to strangers with colorful stories and dark pasts. There she lives with her two unmarried sisters, her two daughters, and her granddaughter.Through the Spanish Civil War, a dictatorship, and the early years of a new democracy, the Encarnas become the wealthiest family in town. Yet despite their success and tenacity, tragedy comes calling, usually in the form of a man—and almost always on a Friday.By turns funny and moving, The Bitter Taste of Time is a thoroughly entertaining read.

Bitter Taste of Time

World Literature

HARPER/COLLINS

When artist Diego Clemente moves from Seville to the YucatánPeninsula to help complete the first guide to the region’s birds, he arriveson the eve of the Mexican Revolution. It is a place where the precarious and thebeautiful balance each other, where opulence is built on the backs of slaves andthe social order is on the brink of collapse. Here he meets Sofia, a fellowartist and a woman who longs to be as free as the birds she also loves. 
Béa Gonzalez creates a lush and richly layered novel thatevokes the passing down, from grandmother to mother to daughter, of aspectacular tale of passion and mystery. The Mapmaker’s Opera isa mesmerizing, ebullient story to be shared among friends.

Literary

Can you believe the things that happen to those Encarna women? No family in the small Spanish town of Canteira has ever given the gossips so much to talk about, so many tragedies and disasters to share on long winter nights. After the absurd but tragic death of her husband, María Encarna, the family's imposing matriarch, turns her granite house into a pensión, opening it up to strangers with their colorful stories of demons and wars.The pensión is very much a woman's world: there's María, known as María la Reina - the Queen - because of her haughty manner and legendary beauty; María's two unmarried sisters, Cecilia, given to daring culinary experiments and endless melodrama, and Carmen, the Holy One; and María's two daughters, Matilde, lost in a world of the imagination; and Asunción, a great beauty and her mother's favorite - until she marries Manuel Pousada, the town's most notorious sinner,whose true motive is to get closer to the disdainful María, the unwilling object of his perverse longings.Fueled by the profits of her connection with the contrabandistas, María builds a 50-bed hotel and cafe-bar. Through the Spanish Civil War, a dictatorship, and the beginning days of the new democracy, the Encarna women, now joined by Asunción's entrepreneurial daughter Gloria, become the wealthiest family in the town. Yet despite their success and tenacity, tragedy comes calling, usually in the form of a man'and almost always on a Friday.In the tradition of Like Water for Chocolate and Antonia's Line, The Bitter Taste of Time is a wondrous, rich and romantic tale of a sweeping history that belongs to a family of remarkable women, a story of passion, pride, love, and war. By turns funny, tragic and touched with a fine sense of magic realism, The Bitter Taste of Time is a hugely entertaining read. Béa Gonzalez's work has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, T.O. Magazine and Brick Literary Magazine. She has been a finalist twice in the CBC/Saturday Night literary competition. Béa Gonzalez spent several years in Galicia, Spain, while growing up and now lives in Toronto

Bitter Taste Of Time Reissue

The Bitter Taste of Time

Genre Fiction

Perennial Canada

The Mapmaker's Opera

IN A TOWN IN THE HEART OF LA MANCHA, home to Don Quijote and his windmills, the Clemente family lived for centuries, their fortunes tied to those of a plant… So begins the grand tale that isThe Mapmaker's Opera. Born in Seville, Spain to a dishonored governess, a young Diego Clemente finds solace in the world of books, in particular John James Audubon'sBirds of America. Mesmerized by the wondrous images in Audobon's magnificent volume, he longs to travel to the New World to find his destiny and see these amazing creatures for himself. When renowned American naturalist Edward Nelson enlists him by chance to create a guide to Yucatan's birds, Diego's dream comes true. Arriving on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on the eve of the Mexican Revolution, Diego finds himself in a world that is as precarious as it is beautiful, where opulent henequen plantations are built on the backs of slave labor and the social order is on the brink of imploding. And there, Diego falls for the young Sofia, a woman who longs to be as free as the birds she also loves. He tries with all his might to win her and, with Nelson's help, to save the last pair of passenger pigeons in existence. A mesmerizing tale of star-crossed passions, a pair of mysterious birds, and a young man's quest to honor both his passions,The Mapmaker's Opera transports its audience with stunning vistas, magical storytelling, and a universal story of love.

United States

Thomas Dunne Books

A richly layered and evocative novel about the lives and loves of a family of remarkable Spanish women Set in northern Spain from 1920 to the present, The Bitter Taste of Time is the compelling story of the Encarna women, whose lives are both tragic and beautiful. After the death of her husband, the family’s gorgeous and imposing matriarch, Maria Encarna, turns her granite house into a pensión, opening it up to strangers with colorful stories and dark pasts. There she lives with her two unmarried sisters, her two daughters, and her granddaughter. Through the Spanish Civil War, a dictatorship, and the early years of a new democracy, the Encarnas become the wealthiest family in town. Yet despite their success and tenacity, tragedy comes calling, usually in the form of a man—and almost always on a Friday. By turns funny and moving, The Bitter Taste of Time is a thoroughly entertaining read.

The Bitter Taste of Time: A Novel

Invocation features two dueling academics in a debate that starts on the wrong foot, then quickly goes viral. Through a series of podcasts, Jungian oriented literature professor Carolina and Spanish cognitive scientist Alberto face off on the nature of dreams, the utility of romantic love, whether a frog must be kissed or flung, and other eclectic topics that ultimately pose the question: Can an open and honest dialogue between two people with very different perspectives lead to not only mutual understanding but love?

Invocation

The Sophia Collective

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gonzalez, Béa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gonzalez, Béa

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gonzalez, Béa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mapmakers Opera

Bitter Taste of Time

Mapmakers Opera

Bitter Taste Of Time Reissue

The Bitter Taste of Time

The Mapmaker's Opera

The Bitter Taste of Time: A Novel

Invocation