Poison is about the intertwined fates of a Spanish commoner and a queen born on the same day and year. Set in 1692, the bicentennial of Columbus’s discovery of America, it features the worst of Spanish life at the time: the dreaded Inquisition. Spain is now a bankrupt nation, having squandered all the riches stolen from its discoveries. Francisca de Luarac is the daughter of a poor Spanish silk grower, a man who lost everything in his pursuit of bigger, better ways to grow silk worms. She becomes the lover of a Catholic priest. Her counterpart, Marie Louise de Bourbon, is the niece of Louis XIV, the Sun King. She is shipped off to Spain to wed Carlos II, an individual born with all the worst traits of the inbred Hapsburgs. Frail, sickly, and impotent, he has subsisted on breast milk and communion wafers. The lives of the two women intersect, however briefly, when Francisca’s mother, a woman who produces copious breast milk, is sent to the palace to feed Carlos.
There are some historical inaccuracies, a good bit of magical realism, lots of dreams and nightmares, and the novel bounces around in time and voice, often feeling rather choppy. However, the prose—at least individual sentences—are gorgeous.
********************
Poison (Random House, July 27, 2011) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
********************
This post contains affiliate links to third party sites. These can help you visually identify books I recommend. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small compensation at no additional cost to you. This offsets some of the cost of maintaining this blog.
