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New epistolary novel chronicles the multigenerational story of enduring familial love
Paola Fonseca announces the release of ‘Pen Pal Feathers’
LONDON — A weaving of personal, spiritual and fictional life experiences, Paola Fonseca’s epistolary novel, “Pen Pal Feathers” (published by Balboa Press), reveals the culture and steadfastness of a Costa Rican family as a grandmother pens a series of letters to her granddaughter to help her recover from a monumental loss.
The ageing Arabella Gallina is struggling to pack up her family’s centuries-old coffee plantation house in Costa Rica. One day, she receives a visit from her son James who asks Arabella for her help with his daughter, Isabella, a young woman who is struggling with her own difficult challenges in far-away England. Reluctantly at first, Arabella begins a correspondence with her granddaughter that eventually allows them both to face the inevitable pain that life delivers to all of us. Theirs is a story of finding courage from within, embracing one’s life purpose, and allowing God to take charge.
“The book is about a family whose last name is Gallina (Hen in English) and uses a metaphor of how hens can fly but they only do it when there is danger, otherwise they are in ‘life as usual mode,’” the author describes. “It is about how the family members and the main character remembered the courage to flap their wings and trust God would provide the air so they could fly and return safely.”
A powerful narrative sprinkled with magic realism and a book of spiritual teachings, “Pen Pal Feathers” illustrates how enduring familial love can propel one to move forward.
