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    Chasing the Sun: A Novel
    Chasing the Sun: A Novel
    Chasing the Sun: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Chasing the Sun: A Novel

    Written by Natalia Sylvester

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Andres suspects his wife has left him—again. Then he learns that the unthinkable has happened: she’s been kidnapped. Too much time and too many secrets have come between Andres and Marabela, but now that she’s gone, he’ll do anything to get her back. Or will he?

    As Marabela slips farther away, Andres must decide whether they still have something worth fighting for, and exactly what he’ll give up to bring her home. And unfortunately, the decision isn’t entirely up to him, or up to the private mediator who moves into the family home to negotiate with the terrorists holding Marabela. Andres struggles to maintain the illusion of control while simultaneously scrambling to collect his wife’s ransom, tending to the needs of his two young children, and reconnecting with an old friend who may hold the key to his past and his wife’s future.

    Set in Lima, Peru, in a time of civil and political unrest, this evocative page-turner is a perfect marriage of domestic drama and suspense.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJun 3, 2014
    ISBN9781480584808
    Chasing the Sun: A Novel
    Author

    Natalia Sylvester

    Natalia Sylvester is the author Running, her YA debut, as well as two novels for adults, Everyone Knows You Go Home, which won an International Latino Book Award, and Chasing the Sun. Born in Lima, Peru, she grew up in Miami, Central Florida, and South Texas, and received a BFA from the University of Miami. She currently lives in Austin, Texas. Look for her at nataliasylvester.com and follow her on Twitter @NataliaSylv.  

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    Reviews for Chasing the Sun

    3/5

    23 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Set in Peru, Chasing the Sun by Natalia Sylvester, is a deep study into one family’s life and how many people are affected by just two people. Andres and Marabela have a complicated marriage, that is clear from the beginning, and then Marabela is kidnapped, only at first Andres believes his wife has simply left him, yet again. Andres hires a negotiator to help bring his wife home. Natalie Sylvester takes the story further having the characters reflect on their lives, their choices, and their families. While I found the premise intriguing, Chasing the Sun was less suspenseful than I hoped and more of a soap opera. For readers who enjoy complex family relationships, Chasing the Sun may be the perfect fit.
    • 4/5
      I expected “Chasing the Sun” to be more of a suspense novel, something taut and fast paced given the subject matter. Instead, it turned out to be more of a character study – the story not so much about a kidnapping (although that is the central event) – but of how a husband and wife react to and deal with the emotional results of a kidnapping.One of the reasons this seemed to be less gripping than I though is that it is set in Peru, in a community that has seen a large number of abductions of well-off people. It seems almost an industry, complete with experts at dealing with kidnappers, negotiation and payoffs. Andres, the husband, whose wife Marabela is taken, learns that his childhood love, Elena, had been kidnapped years before. She provides him the first look at what his wife may be going through during her imprisonment."Elena spits her words at him. "I don't expect you to understand. You think what you're going through is torture because it's the worst thing that's ever happened to you." "I never said I was the victim," Andres says. He feels like he's shrinking, like the world could swallow him whole."Andres’ whole life has been turned upside down. He is forced to be a full time parent for the first time – and must balance secrecy about the kidnapping against the need to get the ransom money, against the need to protect his children and try and find some way through this nightmare. "It's just that they've taken so much from us. Not just her, which is practically everything. But even the little things that I never thought I cared about. There's this bakery that Jorge used to drive past every morning on the way to my office. I'd roll down the window as we got close just to take in the scent of their bread, and now even that doesn't feel safe. And the way Cynthia gets so excited every time the doorbell rings, insisting on opening the door herself. Do you think we'll ever let her do that again?" He shakes his head and rubs his palms against his knees, grasping at the soft fabric of his slacks. "None of these moments belong to us anymore. I'm plagued by the sensation that they know my whole life, that they can take it all away."Everything has changed. Andres, who now has too much time and too little to do, goes over every aspect of his life, over the relationships in his life. He is forced to take a hard look at his choices and actions. He is forced to confront mistakes he’s made in his marriage – both in his choice of wife and his treatment of her after they were married."He'd once fallen in love with her courageousness, and now his fear had betrayed them both. All he saw when he looked at her work was terror, but she knew her photography was more than that. The only way to find hope in these stories was to let them be told. "This is what I do, Andres. It's what I love. Don't ask me to stop just because you're afraid."Marabela is forced to confront the idea of her freedom, of what she values in her life and how she might build a life again. She finds herself looking at everything once familiar to her in a different way. "There are shots the photographer knows will be spectacular the instant she hears the click of the camera, and because of this, developing the film becomes a rushed, impatient thing, like unwrapping a gift when the contents are already known. Other images are complete surprises. Their beauty is not obvious in the moment or through the lens; it hovers beneath the fluid's surface and reveals itself slowly, like the fog of a breath against a windowpane."There are very evocative and emotional parts of this book, but I must admit to being disappointed in the lack of suspense. There is very little action in the book and almost no mystery involved. The kidnapping is treated very business-like, steps to take, hoops to jump through. Although the outcome doesn’t seem certain, Marabela’s life does seem in jeopardy, there is very little tension in either the writing or the events of the story.While not what I expected, “Chasing the Sun” is interesting in the way it deals with the effects of a major trauma to a marriage. How the removal of one partner, in a completely unexpected way, makes both people look at their lives and the directions those lives have taken, in a completely unforeseen way.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Natalia Sylvester’s debuts with CHASING THE SUN, a novel with a balance of suspense, and family drama, set in Lima, Peru, during the 1990s during a time of political and social turbulence.

      The author’s inspiration for this novel—her grandfather's kidnapping; she conveys to readers how trauma has the power to make them stronger, as they mend the past, and uncover deep secrets and truths.

      I chose to read the audiobook version, as loved Peter Berkrot,the narrator in Desperate, as he has a distinct chilling, yet evil like voice, which grabs your attention.

      Combined with a troubled marriage, a kidnapping, a ransom, a past, and a city where the poor struggle and the wealthy live in gated communities to protect their families from evil—the making for a riveting novel; however, the kidnapping seemed very long and drawn out. The first half dealt with kidnapping and the second half was more of the aftermath.

      I did not seem to connect with the characters, as a little of a disconnect, with more of a domestic family drama, versus an intense suspense thriller. All in all, it was not a bad book; however, it did not particularly wow me, either.
    • 2/5
      I found this book to be tedious. I picked it up and put it down several times. Andres makes ridiculous choices with predictably bad outcomes. I kept thinking that I would get into the story and then it would flow. That didn't happen. The only thing I can say about the book is that it is well written.
    • 3/5
      I won this from goodreads giveaways. It was a story about a women that is kidnapped and her relationship with her husband. I did not find it super exciting, no big surprises. Just a story.
    • 4/5
      Picked because it was set in Peru for the bookcrossing 666 reading challenge.Andres and Marabela are living together at the moment, but the marriage is strained. Marabela left him 4 months ago. Now she's back, and he's sleeping on the spare bed, just waiting for her to leave again. However, when she's kidnapped and held for ransom, of course he will drop everything and sell everything to get her back. But that means he loses everything else in his life - his business, his lifestyle. He even has to go crawling back to his mother for money and help with the children - and then he finds out his old girlfriend had gone through the same ordeal a short while ago, and is now in a mental hospital.But when Marabela is finally returned, and in better shape than his ex Elena, now what happens? Is the marriage salvageable, or is it damaged beyond repair?
    • 4/5
      Years ago I read Ann Patchett's haunting novel, Bel Canto, about a group of people kidnapped by terrorists at a party at the home of the vice-president in a South American country. I can vividly recall sitting on my porch mesmerized by the characters and the story.When I heard about Natalia Sylvester's debut novel, Chasing the Sun, which tells the story of an industrialist's wife's kidnapping in Peru, I was curious to read it. Sylvester lived in Lima, Peru and her novel is inspired by a family member who was kidnapped.In Peru, kidnappings are an almost common occurrence. Wealthy people live behind walls and gates, and many have security. Andres owns a label factory, and his family, wife Marabela, teenage son Ignacio and young daughter Cynthia live a good life. The children go to private school, and Marabela volunteers for many charities and is close to the women who cook and clean for them.Things between Marabela and Andres are not good. Four months ago Marabela disappeared, unhappy with her marriage. She returned because she couldn't leave her children. When Marabela doesn't return home after an errand, Andres fears she run away again.But this time Andres gets a call from a man; they have kidnapped Marabela and want one million dollars in ransom. Andres doesn't have that kind of money, and his wealthy mother sends over a man who helps people deal with kidnappers.As the story unfolds and Andres deals with the kidnappers and the facilitator, he tries to hide the situation from his children, his employees and their friends. He discovers that his childhood friend Elena is in a hospital after a suicide attempt following her own kidnapping. From her, he learns something shocking and saddening.Part two deals with the aftermath of the kidnapping. We don't have first hand knowledge of what happened to Marabela, we only get bits of the torment she suffered. Andres hopes that they can pick up the pieces of their life together and move forward, but Marabela isn't so sure she can or even if she wants to.I enjoy reading about places and cultures I don't have much knowledge of, and with Sylvester's growing up in Lima, we get an insider's view. I can't imagine living with the constant fear that you could be grabbed off the street.I also like reading about the Peruvian dishes, like tallarines verdes, a pesto-like sauce served with steak. It makes me want to read more about it, and maybe even make it for dinner.Chasing the Sun drops the reader into the lives of this upper middle class Peruvian family during a crisis. Although the kidnapping propels the story, this is a more personal story about a marriage unraveling. Andres loves Marabela and desperately wants to love the life they have build together, but things and people from their past come bubbling up to the surface and try to pull them apart. Fans of Bel Canto will find much to appreciate in this debut novel.