Treasures in Heaven

To escape a scandal that sent her husband into exile, Estela travels with her infant son to the nineteenth-century metropolis of Mexico City. Once there, she declares herself a widow and goes in search of her former lover--and only true love. Her romantic ideals are quickly destroyed when she realizes that to be a woman in Mexico without family was to be derided, degraded, and disgraced.

Estela is introduced to an elegantly independent creature named La SeÑorita, whose cause is the plight of women in Mexico. Together, the two start an increasingly dangerous movement for social change that foreshadows the Mexican Revolution. Estela's ability to take satisfaction from the repair of the world teaches her that the promise of treasures in heaven should never outweigh the gift of a life that is really lived.

"[Alcala's characters] . . . pay the bills, raise the children, conduct their love affairs, face death and loss . . . [T]hey're average, heroic women." --Washington Post Book World

[Ms. Alcals's] . . . tight focus on the main character's story makes this book a quick read." -- The Dallas Morning News