The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother by Gabriel García Márquez. Short summary

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After her son’s death, the grandmother makes a maid of her granddaughter. She blames her for the fire. Now the girl does not have enough life to pay off the old woman, who begins to sell her as a prostitute.

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Fourteen-year-old Erendira and her grandmother live in a half-abandoned house. After her father died, she became a maid for the old woman. One day the house caught fire and all the grandmother’s and her granddaughter’s belongings were destroyed.

The elderly woman blames the girl for what happened. She believes that she will not live long enough to pay her back. After this, Eréndira becomes a prostitute. A poor widower pays dearly for her virginity. After that, she goes around town until there are no solvent clients left.

Eréndira and her grandmother go to the desert, where they look for traces of smugglers. On the way, they get a ride from a longshoreman with whom the granddaughter pays off. The girl asks the old woman to let her go. But the grandmother demands that Eréndira pay back her debt first.

The old woman builds a house in a deserted place and offers her granddaughter to all the men who pass by. Later they go deeper into the desert, where Erendira meets the farmer’s son Ulysses, whom she «loves until dawn for nothing.» Three days later, the girl is kidnapped by missionaries.