I read return to Lozano’s work in the future.
I don’t know that I can say I loved this book but I was engaged by both of these women and the surrounding characters were also very well drawn. She refers to things like the Language and the Book that represent other things or do not translate to concrete items. Feliciana’s voice is repetitive and a little mystical. For that reason, I often found her story more engaging, because it was clearer to me what was happening and there was a more linear nature to it. Zoe’s is a more typical narration, one we easily recognize and follow. Lozano does an excellent job at creating two very distinct voices of these women. She cannot read or write, she does not speak English or Spanish (her spoken language is never named but she and Zoe communicate through a translator). Feliciana is an older woman now, a grandmother and a widow, who continues to live a simple life even as her reputation as a curandera grows. There are many similarities between Feliciana and Zoe though their differences may be more obvious. We learn about Zoe’s history as well – her relationship with her father and in particular her connection with her sister Leandra.
Zoe is a reporter who has travelled from the city to interview Feliciana. The other narrator running parallel to Feliciana is Zoe. Her cousin Paloma was a curendera but because Paloma was born a man there have been crucial differences in the two women. Feliciana comes from a long line of curanderos (note the gender difference in the terms there is an interesting foreword from the book’s translator about this and other translation choices) but she is the first woman to take on the role. We learn how this is different than a witch or a healer as we might understand such a role in the West. The first is Feliciana, a woman living in rural Mexico who grows to be a curandera. Witches is told in two parallel narrations. I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book thanks to the publisher.
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