Reviews
This is the second book in the Ginkgo Fantasy Reading Group. After The Egg of the Universe by an American Gen Z author, I was very excited to read a novel by a new-generation Mexican author, something I don't often come across. The cover and title are striking, too. Seeing a person with a bird's head in what looks like traditional Mexican clothing made me think of Egyptian gods and filled my head with questions. “I am a shaman. To put it simply, people call me a healer. Some call me a witch.”
The title and cover made me curious. The way the story unfolds kept drawing me in.
“So I ask people: What are you missing? Don't you already have everything? If you have nothing missing today, you won't be missing anything tomorrow, either.” This book begins when a woman named Paloma becomes the victim of a hate crime, though strictly speaking, it is not a story about a murder case. The narrators alternate: Zoe, the journalist covering Paloma's case, and Feliciana, Paloma's relative and a great healer of words, each tell their own story. It begins when Paloma was still a boy
“Death called Paloma three times.... The third time Death called her was when she fell in love with a man in the city.... Death hummed a song in Paloma’s ear, and because the song was as clear as the sun, at six that afternoon Death finally arrived...” (p. 11). A woman named Paloma is murdered. Gender-based violence: the murder and abuse of women, rape. Paloma stood within that context. This is Witches by Brenda Lozano, the second book in Ginkgo Press’s Women Who Imagine series. The story
“I see your language through my own.” “Every woman is born with a little witch in her, to protect herself.” Witches, the second novel in Ginkgo's new international literature series. Our experiences, our voices, our stories, our language, our magic, our power. “You have language, Feliciana. You are a healer of words. Because you are the keeper of books.” I started reading carefully and seriously because I wanted to read well and understand deeply. But I soon let go of that approach—the analysis
Brenda Rosano: Witches
“A story about a world that repeatedly fails to control women's power, and the pure magic of language itself.” Witches, the novel by Brenda Lozano, considered one of the most distinctive voices among Latin America's new generation of writers, has been published as the second volume in the “Women Who Imagine” series. The author won the PEN Translates award for her second novel, Ideal Notebook (Cuaderno ideal). Witches has been praised as a new transformation: a complex, captivating portrayal of two women's voices, two worlds, and encounters among many identities. Witches begins with the story of a murdered woman. Zoe, a young reporter sent to cover the case, listens to stories about Paloma, the victim, her cousin Feliciana, and the people around them. She also reflects on her own life and relationships with her family, and comes face to face with wounds she had unknowingly buried. Through her conversations with Feliciana, Zoe begins to resolve old pain while discovering a new world she had never known and never believed in. This story shows how language can help us understand and live in a world that is at times violent and cruel, and at other times hopeful and joyful.
Korean title: 마녀들
Korean author: 브랜다 로사노
Korean publisher: 은행나무
ISBN-13: 9791167374271
Reviews
This is the second book in the Ginkgo Fantasy Reading Group. After The Egg of the Universe by an American Gen Z author, I was very excited to read a novel by a new-generation Mexican author, something I don't often come across. The cover and title are striking, too. Seeing a person with a bird's head in what looks like traditional Mexican clothing made me think of Egyptian gods and filled my head with questions. “I am a shaman. To put it simply, people call me a healer. Some call me a witch.”
The title and cover made me curious. The way the story unfolds kept drawing me in.
“So I ask people: What are you missing? Don't you already have everything? If you have nothing missing today, you won't be missing anything tomorrow, either.” This book begins when a woman named Paloma becomes the victim of a hate crime, though strictly speaking, it is not a story about a murder case. The narrators alternate: Zoe, the journalist covering Paloma's case, and Feliciana, Paloma's relative and a great healer of words, each tell their own story. It begins when Paloma was still a boy
“Death called Paloma three times.... The third time Death called her was when she fell in love with a man in the city.... Death hummed a song in Paloma’s ear, and because the song was as clear as the sun, at six that afternoon Death finally arrived...” (p. 11). A woman named Paloma is murdered. Gender-based violence: the murder and abuse of women, rape. Paloma stood within that context. This is Witches by Brenda Lozano, the second book in Ginkgo Press’s Women Who Imagine series. The story
“I see your language through my own.” “Every woman is born with a little witch in her, to protect herself.” Witches, the second novel in Ginkgo's new international literature series. Our experiences, our voices, our stories, our language, our magic, our power. “You have language, Feliciana. You are a healer of words. Because you are the keeper of books.” I started reading carefully and seriously because I wanted to read well and understand deeply. But I soon let go of that approach—the analysis
