Other editions of book Tortuga: A Novel

Rudolfo Anaya's personal journey to Tortuga began one desert-hot day when, as an adolescent, he and some friends were swimming in irrigation ditches. He dove in, sustaining an injury that put him in the hospital for an arduous period of time.Tortuga is set in a hospital for crippled children and is based on Anaya's swimming accident. He explores the significance of pain and suffering in a young boy's life and the importance of spiritual recovery as well as medical. Tortuga, or Turtle, is the name of the oddly shaped mountain near the hospital, but "Tortuga" also points toward the rigid cast that encases the young hero's body.In celebration of the twenty-five years since the first edition of Tortuga was published, Rudolfo Anaya has provided an Afterword to share his memories of those days in the hospital and how they impacted the remainder of his life.

This American Book Award winner by the author of Bless Me, Ultima is a novel of a New Mexico teenager’s journey of physical and spiritual recovery. When the story opens, the eponymous hero of Rudolfo Anaya’s novel is in an ambulance en route to a hospital for crippled children in the New Mexican desert. A poor boy from Albuquerque, sixteen-year-old Tortuga takes his name from the odd, turtle-shaped mountain that is rumored to possess miraculous curative powers. Tortuga is paralyzed, and not even his mother’s fervent prayers can heal him. But under the mountain’s watchful gaze, with the support of fellow patients, he begins the Herculean task of breaking out of his shell and becoming whole again. Drawn from personal experience and imbued with the magic realism and phantasmagorical vision quests that distinguish Anaya’s work, Tortuga is a joyful, life-sustaining book about hope, faith, friendship, and love that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the physical world.

"Anaya's first book, Bless Me, Ultima, was a ground-breaking novel of the life and folklore of Chicanos in southeastern New Mexico. Tortuga, his third novel, far supercedes all ethnic and geographical boundaries. His children are all mankind. . . . it opens our eyes to the depths and heights of feeling within us . . . the accomplishment of a major novel."--Frank Waters

This American Book Award winner by the author of Bless Me, Ultima is a novel of a New Mexico teenager's journey of physical and spiritual recovery. When the story opens, the eponymous hero of Rudolfo Anaya's novel is in an ambulance en route to a hospital for crippled children in the New Mexican desert. A poor boy from Albuquerque, 16-year-old Tortuga takes his name from the odd, turtle-shaped mountain that is rumored to possess miraculous curative powers. Tortuga is paralyzed, and not even his mother's fervent prayers can heal him. But under the mountain's watchful gaze, with the support of fellow patients, he begins the Herculean task of breaking out of his shell and becoming whole again. Drawn from personal experience and imbued with the magic realism and phantasmagorical vision quests that distinguish Anaya's work, Tortuga is a joyful, life-sustaining book about hope, faith, friendship, and love that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the physical world.

In Tortuga, you are a swashbuckling buccaneer trying to safely transport your acquired treasures to the legendary pirate haven of Tortuga before other buccaneers (your fellow players) try to capture them from you.As the dice roll, you can almost hear the crash of the cannons and the smash of the sabers. Tortuga rewards players who exhibit traits of a good pirate (sorry, buccaneer!): adaptability, greed, decisiveness, and luck!Tortuga has very little downtime as buccaneers roll their dice (a unique color for each player) behind player screens and decide simultaneously what resource to place on their player board: treasure, crew, ships, sabers and cannons. All are important, and you need to watch what your opponents are doing lest that treasure you just acquired find its way to another "rightful" owner!