Volver Is to Return

About the Book

America Somerville works for UNICEF as a close adviser to the executive director and is a respected child rights’ advocate. She is happily married to a Frenchman who is also dedicated to his work at Amnesty International as a specialist in the Middle East. They have a young son and a busy life in New York City, where America is consumed by her highly visible and political job. Her demanding position calls for traveling to many countries around the world, addressing challenging violations of children’s rights as well as dealing with the many intrigues at United Nations Headquarters. When she receives an urgent call requesting her to return home to Uruguay, she is on a high-level mission for UNICEF and believes she must first finish her assignments. The truth is that she fears facing her authoritarian father, whom she has purposely shut out of her life due to the many lies and secrets that drove her away after her mother’s mysterious and untimely death. As she reflects on the circumstances that led her to exclude her powerful and illustrious family from her life, key signs from the universe reach out to her during her visits to India, Peru, and Vietnam. A devastating tragedy forces her to return home to her estranged family in Uruguay, which puts her on a path to search for the truth and spiritual transformation. Back home at the ranch Los Olivos, which has been in her family for several generations, she uncovers the dark secrets that have damaged her family for years and continues on her journey to find faith, love, forgiveness, and true calling.

About the Author

Like the heroine in this novel, the author Rebeca Rios-Kohn was born in Uruguay and is also a lawyer by profession and trained in the United States. She has dedicated most of her life to advocating for children’s rights and promoting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Her career with UNICEF and other United Nations agencies spans over twenty-five years, where she held senior-level positions. For the past three decades, she has worked in more than thirty countries, combating a wide range of children’s rights violations. While working for the UN, she published a number of articles for law journals and coauthored Protecting the World’s Children, a UNICEF publication. This is her debut novel and a total work of fiction although inspired by real-life experiences. The author lives in Sag Harbor, New York, and travels frequently to Uruguay and France to visit her extended family.