Sixteen-year-old Lava lives peacefully enough with her imperfect mother, Lila, and their boarder, Cody, an Iraqi war vet suffering from PTSD. Lava’s ex-addict father, Jesse, is released from prison, and Lava’s life in Detroit is upended when Jesse pressures Lava for her urine, so he can pass his mandatory drug tests. After an altercation, Lava is sent to live with her mother’s cousin Lola in Seville. Lola is a larger-than-life flamenco dancer who teaches Lava the language of flamenco dance; Lava’s life opens outward as she becomes fluent in flamenco’s structure, giving her new modes of expression as she experiences first love, friendship, and betrayal, and uncovers family secrets. Rich with lyrical, sensual prose, Duende is a coming-of-age novella about mothers and daughters, about legacy, about self-expression, about defining a way to live.
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