Jessi Hanson

In the Silence of the Sun Jessi Hanson

Amidst the rural landscape of the Dominican Republic, Ame comes of age in a time of poverty and political discord. She is born the only daughter of the Almeda family, disgraced as traitors to the Trujillo regime ruling the nation. Ame grows up isolated, born unable to speak and with a past that is kept from her by her family. She relies on the guidance and love of her abuela Milagros, brothers and her childhood love, Manu. When she comes of age, she is given away by her father into a relationship with a military trujillista. Ame struggles to escape her abusive circumstances. In her journey to take back her life, she must choose to risk everything to join with the men of her family in the clandestine movement, la Catorce de junio, against the oppressive dictatorship swallowing the island.