Only the River
In 1938, during the Anschluss, a Jewish family escapes from Vienna to El Castillo, Nicaragua. The parents, both doctors, establish a clinic to assist in eradicating yellow fever. Their fourteen-year-old daughter, Pepa, helps in running the household, plays in the streets, and wanders in the forest. Pepa meets a village boy, Guillermo, and they fall in love, spending idyllic days in the jungle and on the river. In 1942, Pepa gets pregnant but keeps it secret from Guillermo. However, with Pepa’s parents’ efforts in controlling yellow fever having some success, they are offered visas to the United States and jump at the opportunity. The family leaves for New York, but Pepa is lovesick for Guillermo. Later, both marry others and have children.
In 1982, Pepa’s son, William, decides to go to Nicaragua to fight for the country’s independence. He disappears and is presumed dead. Although distraught, Pepa is too old and sick to travel, so her lesbian daughter, Liliana, journeys to Nicaragua to determine William’s whereabouts.
Anne Raeff’s multigenerational novel portrays the plights of a Viennese Jewish refugee family and the Nicaraguan people, who suffer from the yellow fever epidemic and revolutionary wars. The detailed descriptions of life in Nicaraguan villages and cities, in the households of both the native residents and Europeans, are recounted realistically. These are most likely based upon the author’s travels and extensive research. Through the voices of the vast cast of characters, we learn of their apprehensions, loneliness, and efforts at reconciliation from their uprooting. The racial segregationist attitudes of the European settlers and the friendly but cautious approach of the native Nicaraguans are subtly woven into the storyline. The novel cleverly presents the inhabitants’ reliance on the river, and the knowledge and willpower to take up arms, which “only the river” can provide. A linear narrative would have enhanced the book’s readability.
