TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE. Leila Cobo. Grand Central. 299 pages. $13.99 in paper.

There comes a time in most women's lives when they do or say something and suddenly think, often with horror: ``I have become my mother.'' In most cases, these are innocuous moments, but in the case of Gabriella, the protagonist in Leila Cobo's debut novel, these instances can be illuminating and even life changing.

Gabriella is the 22-year-old daughter of a famous Hollywood movie producer and a talented Colombian photographer, Helena, who died in a plane crash when Gabriella was 4. Gabriella is doted on by her father and her maternal grandmother, Nini, whom she visits in Cali, Colombia, for four weeks every Christmas. During one of these visits, the story takes place.

At a lavish, body-guarded party in Cali, Gabriella meets Angel, the son of an infamous, jailed drug kingpin. She is immediately attracted to him, much to her family's dismay. Just before the onset of their tumultuous and intense affair, Gabriella finds her mother's diary and learns that Helena was on her way from L.A. to Cali to meet a lover when her plane went down. Gabriella isn't sure if her mother was meeting him to end the affair or to make arrangements to leave her husband, perhaps even her daughter. With these revelations and unknowns, Gabriella is thrown into a tailspin.

Gabriella's clandestine relationship with Angel makes up half of the story; Helena's diary entries and affair make up the other half. What saves this novel of forbidden love and its repercussions from trite predictability -- in addition to its poignant ending -- are its sensuous setting and insights into the dichotomy of Colombian and American cultures. Gabriella considers herself part of both cultures: ``When she was a little girl, Gabriella took for granted these two worlds she came from, so similar yet so completely alien from each other.'' She lives a life of utmost privilege in Cali (limousine rides and servants) even more so than in her life among the rich and famous of Beverly Hills; still her friends will not accompany her to Colombia for vacation because ``they're afraid of getting killed, or worse.''

Cobo smoothly imparts the importance of familial ties and family honor in Colombia, alongside American priorities of success and security. In her diary, Helena writes to Gabriella, ``It's important to never fully sever the ties that bind you. . . . (N)o matter how long you stay away, you can always come back. There was a time when I thought I had lost this, when I was lulled into thinking that I didn't need it. . . . I didn't even know what I missed or I needed, until I went back.'' Indeed, both women's affairs seem induced by Colombia and its meaning to them as much as by the men they love.

Melodramatic in some places -- Gabriella believes her entire life was based on a lie, but she never doubts her mother's and father's love for her or for each other -- Tell Me Something True is a bittersweet journey about coming to understand and forgive the indiscretions of one's parents through the simple act of living one's life.

Amy Canfield is a freelance writer in Portland, Maine.

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