The Foreign Service Journal, November 2012

48 NOVEMBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Continued from page 43 set in the Dominican Republic during the heyday of direct U.S. military intervention in the Caribbean region. An insightful read, the work examines the unwelcome and unexpected role of U.S. Marines in trying to resolve the age- old problem of exploitation of the weak and helpless by the rich and powerful. The Marines find themselves in a critical position between peasants lending support to guerrilla insur- gents and ruthless sugar barons. The reader will find military action, betrayals, intrigue and good humor in the story, as well as romantic encounters between a Marine captain and the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest Dominican on the island. During his four years (1984-1988) as public affairs counselor in Santo Domingo, Ernesto Uribe was able to access primary sources for information about the U.S. occupation of the Domini- can Republic from 1916 to 1924. In travels throughout the coun- try, he visited the sites formerly occupied by the Marines and col- lected local oral histories. These gave him a rich store of materials fromwhich to fashion this interesting historical novel. Ernesto Uribe grew up on a South Texas ranch where his family has raised beef since 1775. In 1962, he joined the U.S. Information Agency as a Foreign Service officer, and was primarily posted in Latin America until leaving to write full time. Besides Rumors of a Coup , he has published another novel, Tlalcoyote (Xlibris, 2001). The Museum of Abandoned Secrets Oksana Zabuzhko (Translated from Ukrainian by Nina Shevchuk-Murray), Amazon Crossing, 2012, $14.95, paperback, 600 pages. This novel by acclaimed Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko weaves together the lives of three women and three generations of history, from Stalin’s 1932 manmade famine to the simmering political tension of the 2004 Orange Revolution, in rich historical detail. Olena is a voice from the past, a member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army who died in World War II. Her life is inextricably tied to a present-day television journalist, the beautiful Daryna, and a renowned artist, Vlada. Daryna is inspired by a vintage photograph of Olena to produce a documentary on the deceased woman’s life—a pursuit that brings her to Adrian, Olena’s grand- son. As she delves deeper into her story, she falls in love. The title, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets , plays on the Nugent’s story is beautifully narrated, and the tapestry of charac- ters and intimate glimpse into the fictional town is as entrancing as the quick-moving plot and its unsuspected climax. Cheryl Nugent, a mother of two and grandmother of two more, wrote The Light fromMaggie’s View in Palau, where her husband was posted during a Foreign Service career that also took them to Burma, Thailand, China, Australia and Paraguay. The couple now resides in South Carolina. Rumors of a Coup Ernesto Uribe, Xlibris, 2010, $19.99/ paperback, 378 pages; $9.99/ Kindle Edition. “Uribe is a great story teller, and he has a great story to tell in Rumors of a Coup, ” says one Amazon reviewer of this book. “His years as a diplomat in the U.S. For- eign Service have given him a firsthand look at Latin American cultures, food, idiosyncrasies of the region and, especially, the minds, deeds and misdeeds of many of the military leaders.” Set in a fictitious coca-producing republic that is in the hands of a ruthless military dictator, the story’s central heroes are an American diplomat, an American adventurer and a beautiful woman who is secretly collaborating with the rebels. The plot works its way through the contemporary drama of greed, revolt, murder and large-scale drug trafficking, as well as the sometimes clandestine cooperation among dictators, drug lords, guerillas, politicians and the various Americans and other foreigners in these settings. Anyone who has worked or traveled in Latin America will enjoy this book, but the general reader, too, will find it a witty and entertaining read. A former FSO with the U.S. Information Agency, Ernesto Uribe spent most of his diplomatic career in Latin America, where he experienced no less than eight coups d’état, as well as some bloody and some nonviolent takeovers. He now lives in Northern Virginia, where he devotes his time to writing fiction, and com- mutes regularly to his South Texas ranch, where he owns a small cattle herd and enjoys riding his horse in the brush country. The Unforgiving Ernesto Uribe, Xlibris, 2011, $19.99/paperback, 337 pages; $9.99/Kindle Edition. The Unforgiving takes place immediately after World War I and is