With one suitcase and a map drawn on a bar napkin as her only guide, sixteen-year old Loren travels to Moron del la Frontera in Andalusia to learn to play flamenco guitar from the Gypsies. Here she joins an extended family of flamenco artists and foreign aficionados whose adventures over a twenty-year period are interwoven with Loren’s own odyssey. Her life with the Gypsies is haunted by the mysterious circumstances of her brother Aaron’s death. Although they shared the same New York Jewish upbringing, he went to California during the expansive optimism of the sixties, while she went back in time to explore a rich music and culture. Their relationship is a dark love story that casts disquieting shadows over their years apart.
As Loren struggles to master an instrument traditionally off-limits to women, she finds her own path, inspired by the earthy wisdom of her Gypsy companions.
“This stunning first novel is the story of a journey from America to Andalusia, where a community of Gypsies has inhabited a musical and poetic tradition so intensely and for so long that the nature of reality is transformed for all those they encounter. In this landscape even the buildings are capable of passion.”-The Nation
“. . . fascinating insights into Gypsy culture.” — Los Angeles Times
Dorien Ross studied flamenco guitar with Andalusian Gypsies. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays and in Tikkun.
