The Flamenco Academy Book

What is flamenco? Though there can be joy in the art form, its history is a grim one, a past of misery, hunger, resistance and defiance. According to historian Felix Grande, it arose out of persecution, exploitation, humiliation, wholesale genocide and expulsion. “It is a storm of exasperation and grief.” Onto this stage comes Cindi Rae Hrncir, a pale-skinned Czech girl descended from milkmaids and looking it. Along for the ride is the flamboyant, exotic, devil-may-care Ofelia a.k.a. Didi “Deeds” Steinberg, née Rachel Steinberg, Cindi Rae’s best friend and worst enemy. Told with a fervor that leaps off the page and sears the heart, it is a novel of passion, love, betrayal, mistaken identities, changeling history, obsession and erotomania. Tangled up with all this is the wild adoration of flamenco, a love that withers and blights all it touches and yet snares its victims helplessly within its web. Ms. Bird has crafted an epic tale, one that extends back centuries, one that has its characters and readers arguing, fighting and loving each other while trying to solve the burning mystery of what flamenco is and to whom it truly belongs.