"Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution, this romance knits the passion of a strong, independent woman into the history of a country, much in the manner of the 19th-century costumbrista tradition. Which of two men and their opposing paths will she choose? Peden's seamless translation of the richly detailed prose make for a page-turner. In its first publication under the title Mal de amores (1996), work was awarded the 1997 Rómulo Gallegos international prize for fiction"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.