The breakout novel from the award-winning Colombian author of 'Leopard In The Sun'.
In 'The Dark Bride' Laura Restrepo artfully blends tragedy, humour, politics and a healthy sense of the grotesque and comes up with an extraordinary novel at the forefront of Latin American writing.
The "dark bride" is Sayonara, a beautiful peasant child who arrives in the town of Tora in Colombia's oil-drilling region and is adopted by a local madame. Sayonara possesses a "singular mix of helplessness and arrogance that fuels male desire better than any aphrodisiac" and soon becomes the most desired woman in all the land.
Sayonara gives her heart to one man - a handsome oil-rigger. But Payanes is married and the pair are kept apart. Sayonara marries another and travels far away but years later she returns to Tora where she prays and awaits the return of her true love. They are finally reunited and disappear into the night.
