Is The Hummingbird's Daughter Worth Reading?
Ada’s Score
Luis Alberto Urrea's epic, magical-realist masterwork tells the story of Teresita, the illegitimate daughter of a powerful Mexican rancher, who discovers she possesses the power to heal the sick and the dying in late nineteenth-century Sinaloa. Based on the true story of the real-life Saint Teresa of Cabora, the novel moves between the intimate world of the hacienda and the vast, violent upheavals of pre-revolutionary Mexico, blending folklore, history, and the miraculous into an unforgettable whole. Urrea's prose is lush and ecstatic, charged with the heat and dust of the Sonoran desert. It is one of the great unsung novels of American literature, a love story between a woman and her people.
Episode 4“Urrea writes with the heat and color of the desert itself. This book is an act of love for a woman history nearly forgot — and it's glorious.”
A Saint, a Revolution, and a Love That Spans Worlds
Luis Alberto Urrea spent twenty years researching his own great-great-aunt, a real woman named Teresita who became a folk saint in nineteenth-century Mexico, and the devotion shows on every page. This is a novel that feels mythic and intimate at once — dust and miracles, political fire and quiet tenderness. If you want a book that makes you feel like you've lived an entire other life by the final page, this is the one.
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“Urrea writes with the heat and color of the desert itself. This book is an act of love for a woman history nearly forgot — and it's glorious.”
A Saint, a Revolution, and a Love That Spans Worlds
Luis Alberto Urrea spent twenty years researching his own great-great-aunt, a real woman named Teresita who became a folk saint in nineteenth-century Mexico, and the devotion shows on every page. This is a novel that feels mythic and intimate at once — dust and miracles, political fire and quiet tenderness. If you want a book that makes you feel like you've lived an entire other life by the final page, this is the one.
Book Details
- Publisher
- Little, Brown and Company
- Published
- January 1, 2005
- Pages
- 512
- Language
- English
Get This Book
Affiliate linksISBN: 9780316154529
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Ada’s Score
4.5
Ada’s editorial score — not an aggregate of reader reviews.
Common Questions About The Hummingbird's Daughter
- Is The Hummingbird's Daughter worth reading?
- Urrea writes with the heat and color of the desert itself. This book is an act of love for a woman history nearly forgot — and it's glorious. Ada rates it 4.5 out of 5.
- How many pages is The Hummingbird's Daughter?
- The Hummingbird's Daughter is 512 pages long — around 9–10 hours at an average reading pace.
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