Book excerpt: Nicaragua Way tells the story of Lorna Almendros, a San Francisco Nicaraguan-American poet, passionately engaged in supporting revolutionary struggles in Latin America and the Sandinista solidarity movement in the U.S. Nicaragua Way follows Lorna, a single mother, searching for her roots, raising a daughter, falling in love, while facing deaths, griefs, intrigues, and her fears of menopause, empty nest blues, and aging. Through it all, she writes poems. Set in San Francisco and Managua between 1975 and 1989, the novel portrays a rich cast of characters, including Rini, Lorna’s daughter; Eddie, an organizer and revolutionary guerrilla fighter; Helen, her best friend, and a city politician; and Maria Rosa, a Nicaraguan-exiled immigrant. They move between San Francisco’s activist-arts community and Nicaragua, building support for change in the shadow of the U.S. undeclared wars in Central America.