BOOK 2 of the PUERTO RICO TRILOGY ~

Crime, corruption, and colonialism—as well as compassion, survival and dark humor—are woven into The Puerto Rico Trilogy, which consists of three separate character-driven novels that focus on the Caribbean island and its complex political and social relationship with the U.S.       

The Defining Sea. book two, was also sparked by U.S.-Puerto Rico history. Its plot is derived from the U.S, Navy’s decades-long live fire and bombing exercises on the inhabited offshore Puerto Rico island of Vieques, which caused death and serious illness. The story told concerns a 20-year-old University of Puerto Rico student who delivers drugs between the island and the states to raise money for a scholarship that will be named after his girlfriend, killed by police during a protest against the Navy’s maneuvers. 

What Others Are Saying:

"Robert Friedman’s powerful new novel grabs us on the very first page and takes us on an exciting journey. The author lived for decades in Puerto Rico, where he worked as a journalist, and he demonstrates an intimate knowledge of the island and a deeply felt concern for its people. This is a gripping account of lost love, the temptations of the drug trade, the island’s complex relationship with the United States, the dual world of Puerto Ricans in the diaspora, and the struggle to survive in a difficult world. A truly memorable, touching story. — Kal Wagenheim, author, playwright, and editor of The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History

Robert Friedman weaves the different strains of Puerto Rican life during the last forty years into a compelling story of love, crime, and colonial politics. Against the backdrop of the monumental effort to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques island at the turn of this century, he explores, with context and meaning, the island’s changing social mores, its horrific drug problem, and the political ideals that survive from the past and still inflame today’s youth. — Carmen Dolores Hernández, literary critic, author of Puerto Rican Voices in English