Recommendations of recent books from the staffs of a rotating list of Bay Area independent bookstores. This week’s list is from Orinda Books, 276 Village Square, Orinda.
The Distant Marvels, by Chantel Acevedo: Set in Cuba during a deadly hurricane in the 1960s, this novel tells of a group of women who are evacuated from their homes and forced to find shelter on the first floor of a mansion until the storm subsides. While they wait it out, one of them tells the story of her childhood during Cuba’s Third War of Independence. This is a wonderful story about the stories we tell each other and what they reveal about ourselves.