The story of a Puerto Rican novelist and her historian husband's tussle over two very different interpretations of their families' histories. Quintin Mendizabal stumbles upon his wife Isabel Monfort's manuscript, an autobiographical novel chronicling their Spanish, Corsican and New England roots, and their families' struggle through several decades of Puerto Rican history. In protest, he writes alternate chapters from his point of view. It's a multi-generational novel within a novel exposing the themes of racism, identity, statehood and independence among Puerto Ricans, and their attitudes toward Spain and the United States.  (CRB65, $15.00)