The Country Under My Skin

Born into an upper-class family in Managua, Nicaragua, Gioconda Belli seemed an unlikely revolutionary. After an early marriage and motherhood, however, she was introduced to the growing underground Sandinista organization - and to the kind of passion that was lacking in her marriage. Belli soon found her desire to be a good wife in the traditional sense supplanted by the need to live life fully and to effect change along the way. Ironically, her bourgeois lifestyle and career as an acclaimed poet provided the cover that allowed her to succeed as a rebel. From her childhood in Managua and her initial encounters with poets and revolutionaries, to car chases, meetings with Fidel Castro, sensual affairs cut short by death, exile in Mexico and Costa Rica, and an eventual new life married to an American, Belli's tale is both the story of a woman discovering her true self and of a nation grappling with its destiny.