The Mortifications Summary
Derek Palacio

The Mortifications Overview

Derek Palacio’s novel The Mortifications dictates the odyssey of the Encarnacións, a family torn between two places after the 1980 Mariel boatlift in Cuba. Fearing the collapse of communism and of Cuba, Soledad uproots her twins children, Ulises and Isabel, from their home and from her husband’s faith in the rebellion. In Hartford, Connecticut, Ulises and Isabel grow up and their mother finds solace in the arms of a local tobacco farmer, but eventually they all grow apart—and the family returns to the island and the man they had left behind. The Mortifications tackles themes of faith, fate, myth, and memory.