Book Description
From the author of Witches, a gripping, kaleidoscopic tale of two women in 1940s Mexico—one whose daughter has just been kidnapped and another who has just adopted a little girl
When the kidnapping of a little girl shocks the Mexican capital, the lives of two very different women become forever intertwined. Gloria Felipe lives a comfortable upper-class life with her husband and five children. Nuria Valencia comes from a working-class background and has been desperately trying to get pregnant in order to save her marriage. After traditional methods produce no results, she subjects herself to horrific fertility treatments designed and administered by men, and ultimately tries to adopt but is rejected on the basis that a woman in her early thirties is too old to adopt a baby. Failed time and again by the system and about to lose hope, she is presented with an opportunity that seems almost too good to be true.
Through the eyes of a wry unnamed narrator, we witness the battle of the Felipe family to recover their youngest member and the anguished attempts of the Valencia family to save their daughter from potential danger. With the twists and turns of a thriller, and Brenda Lozano’s sharp yet poignant sense of humor, the novel asks how far mothers are willing to go in the name of love for their children, and at what cost.
Praise For This Book
Electric Literature, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year“We hear this is what happened . . . So begins a tale with the momentum of detective fiction and the force of a historical novel. Class, motherhood, urban life, and the media are just some of the pieces in the astonishing puzzle of this novel that seems to be speaking of the past, but is actually telling us about the present." —Mauro Libertella
"In this novel, the language shimmers then leaves us with questions like open wounds: What are we mothers capable of doing for the love of a daughter? What do our medical and social systems make (im)possible for women? Who has access to justice? What are the consequences of fear in our society? How can we ever forgive? These questions echo through our current context. With an engaging cast of characters and an astute narrator, Lozano knits together 1940s Mexico and our contemporary moment with surprising power and tenderness." —Gabriela Jauregui, author of Controlled Decay
