THE SECRET OF ALICANTO
by Inder Verma
In Verma’s novel, an unexpected May-December romance blooms between a Catholic nurse and a Jewish professor.
Left alone to care for her newborn twins after her husband Amir abandons the family, Maria is so overwhelmed that when she wins a free trip to Portugal at a church raffle, she seriously contemplates giving the prize away. Ultimately, she decides to leave the babies in her beloved Mamãe’s capable hands and jets off for a well-deserved overseas adventure. While in Portugal, she meets and becomes fast friends with Jerry, a divorced academic who is immediately enthralled with the younger woman. Despite their obvious spark, Jerry worries if a romance with Maria is even possible, given their age disparity—he’s in his mid-50s and she is in her late 30s. Verma’s characters worry prodigiously in her careful and methodical chronicle of a burgeoning adult relationship—their intense uncertainty serves as the main source of drama and tension in what is otherwise a rather pedestrian love story in which two people meet, fall in love, and then have to deal with the banalities of everyday life. Will Jerry still feel the same passion for Maria once he realizes he has to share her with two babies who cry a lot and require frequent diaper changes? How will they make a long-term relationship work if Maria lives in Florida and Jerry lives in Boston? Verma mines these real-life conundrums to extract a true sense of authenticity; this may not be high romance, but it feels true. The narrative’s dramatic engine is teased long before it actually comes into sharp relief when the couple travels to San Pedro de Atacama and Maria must confront most closely held secret (“oh my god, what shall I do?”). Will the unearthed truth undermine the foundations of Maria and Jerry’s love? Readers aren’t kept on pins and needles for long waiting for the answer, but that’s the kind of drama reserved for overly romanticized fiction. Verma is more interested in keeping things real.
A surprisingly satisfying love story between two very ordinary people.