The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle

The verse novel is a funny little genre. Its roots are in the ancient epics like Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Beowulf. These epics are culturally invaluable as a common literary thread and form a foundation for most of the western literary tradition. The verse novel is a separate modern tradition that saw its initial popularity in the early and mid 19th century. Then it faded out, but not completely. There's a steady trickle of examples through the twentieth century particularly in 60's (everywhere) and in the Caribbean.

A recent revival of the form has happened in YA lit starting in the early 2000's. There are dozens and dozens of examples at this point and I've had great success getting reluctant readers to read them. There's something about the greater white space on the page,the lyricism, and language play that works for kids who struggle finding books to read for the full range of reasons.

The Surrender Tree is the story of Cuba's struggle for independence from Spanish rule. It is a verse novel told from five points of view but mainly focusing on Rosa la Bayamesa who was an herbal healer hunted by the Spanish as an escaped slave. Rosa is a historical figure as are most of the characters in the novel and many of the events in the story are real historical events, but the narrative is highly fictionalized.

Rosa lived almost her entire life running from slave hunters and caring for the various refugees from the intermittent war with Spain. She didn't just help the Cubans either. She also helped wounded Spanish soldiers some of which defected to the Cuban side.

I liked the immediacy of the voice and the connection of the story to the jungles and healing plants. I got a real sense of the anxiety and hopelessness of the situation and various voices, all of them Cuban of one sort or another, gave different perspectives on the events. I didn't like what ended up feeling like a dearth of information. The verse novel can be a very sparse form for conveying historical context and I finished the book feeling a little like the characters existed in these little Cuba-scented bubbles.

Overall, The Surrender Tree is a good gateway text to Cuban history and an excellent example of the verse novel featuring the fairly typical multiple voice format.