The Volcano Daughters
El Salvador

The Volcano Daughters

by Gina María Balibrera

Revolution & Change Historical Fiction 2025

Summary

El Salvador, 1923. Two sisters, separated by family secrets and raised in the shadow of a ruthless dictator, are destined for lives neither could have imagined. Graciela, a young Indigenous girl with the ability to foresee the future, is summoned to the capital to serve a rising tyrant. There, she discovers Consuelo, the sister stolen from her family years earlier. As the regime’s violence escalates and genocide devastates their Indigenous community, the sisters flee separately, each believing the other is dead. Their journeys take them from Hollywood to Paris and San Francisco, pursued by the ghosts of murdered friends whose stories refuse to be forgotten. Blending history, mythology, and magical realism, this haunting novel explores sisterhood, cultural memory, and the power of those silenced by history to reclaim their voices.

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Country
El Salvador
North America
About the author
Gina María Balibrera
Gina María Balibrera

Gina María Balibrera is a Salvadoran-American writer whose fiction explores history, cultural memory, displacement, and the experiences of communities whose stories have been marginalised. She earned an MFA in Prose from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where she also served as a postgraduate fellow. Her writing has appeared in publications including Boston Review, Latino Book Review, and Pleiades. Balibrera has received several fellowships and awards, including the Aura Estrada Prize, the Tyson Award, and the Under the Volcano Sandra Cisneros Fellowship. Her debut novel, The Volcano Daughters, reimagines El Salvador’s history through Indigenous women’s experiences, weaving together political violence, mythology, and magical realism. The novel received critical acclaim for its imaginative storytelling and its powerful portrayal of sisterhood, resistance, and the lasting legacy of historical trauma. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her family.

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Details
Published
2025
Author
Gina María Balibrera