Elliott Bay Book Company is delighted to host acclaimed author Kathleen Alcalá for a special in-store event to celebrate the re-issue of her novel, Treasures in Heaven, with award-winning poet Claudia Castro Luna. Originally published in 2000 by Chronicle Books, Treasures in Heaven is a story, inspired by true events, that is especially relevant today. Treasures in Heaven is a turbulent tale of love and political awakening set in Mexico a century ago. The protagonist, Estela, finds herself swept into a world of politics and entangled in secret relationships. What starts as lessons to educate poor children grows into a school for prostitutes. The school leads to a radical underground newspaper and a dangerous movement for social change that foreshadows the Mexican Revolution.
Treasures in Heaven is one of three stand-alone books set in nineteenth-century Mexico and based on Kathleen Alcalá's family's stories-stories both historical and universal. The first two books, Spirits of the Ordinary and The Flower in the Skull, stick pretty closely to the author's family lore, while Treasures in Heaven explores the feminist movement that arose in Mexico.