The Divine Husband is a sweeping cross-continental love story which follows Maria de las Nieves Moran on her journey from closeted girlhood to social, sexual and intellectual emancipation in the giddy world of New York.When Maria's convent in Central America closes down unexpectedly, she is forced to make her own way in the secular world. Her budding womanhood is watched by a group of unforgettable characters who strive, just as she does, for love and success in the late-nineteenth century: Jose Marti, charismatic poet and hero of Cuban independence; Mack Chinchilla, entrepreneur and idealist; and the stuffy diplomat Wellesley Bludyar, of the British legation. All are captivated by Maria, but when she gives birth to a daughter whose father she refuses to name, each fails to protect her . . .

Author Biography

Francisco Goldman's first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens, won the Sue Kaufman Prize for first fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Ordinary Seaman, his second novel, was a finalist for the International IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award. Both novels were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Goldman's novel The Divine Husband was published by Atlantic Books in 2006. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, New York Times Magazine, and New York Review of Books. The Art of Political Murder (Atlantic 2008) is his latest book.