"Poignant and absorbing."-BlueInk Review
"Epic in both theme and scale."-Foreword Clarion Reviews
On the edge of Chile's Atacama Desert, an impossible love unfolds against persecution, ideology, and the mysteries of time.
Rita's Wait is set in the pioneer port city of Antofagasta, Chile, nestled between the desert and the Pacific Ocean, between 1918 and 1920. As political unrest and social divisions deepen in the aftermath of the War of the Pacific, Rita, a thirty-two-year-old seamstress, longs for independence and a life of purpose beyond the expectations placed on women of her time.
On the Day of the Dead, Rita notices a mysterious man standing beside a grave. Drawn to him despite reason, she carries his image as she walks home, only to encounter a group painting a black cross on a wall, a sinister warning from the Patriotic League, whose campaign of intimidation, violence, and expulsion targets those it deems undesirable.
When Rita crosses paths with Xavier, the man from the cemetery, she learns he is among the persecuted. In a changing society shaped by prejudice, ideology, and fear, she discovers a love unlike anything she has known, one that seems to belong to them alone. As danger closes in on Xavier, harassment and political violence threaten the future they are trying to forge.
Around them, the lives of two other couples unfold in parallel, revealing the many faces of love, loyalty, and moral conviction. Together, their stories form a richly layered portrait of a community struggling to preserve its humanity in a time of fear and division. Their journey leads them to a remote farm beside a unique tamarugal forest rising from the sands of the northern Atacama. There, they move through a landscape unlike any other, where history and legend seem to surface in subtle signs that challenge Rita's understanding of time and memory, drawing her to the threshold between the visible and the unseen.
Rita's Wait recreates a world shaped by immigration, foreign enterprise, labour unrest, social inequality, and the lingering legacy of colonialism. Inspired by family history and historical events, it blends meticulous research with an intimate story of enduring love, identity, belonging, and the human cost of intolerance. Religion, superstition, folklore, and Indigenous traditions coexist with moments of transcendence, while the beauty and mystery of the Atacama Desert invite readers to glimpse the ethereal without ever losing sight of historical reality.
At once intimate, atmospheric, and sweeping, the novel offers a richly textured portrait of a community shaped by tradition, conflict, and change, and of the people struggling to find love, belonging, and purpose within it.
