Publisher's Synopsis
Finalista del National Book Award 2022 (Premio Nacional de Literatura 2022), organizado por la Fundación Nacional del Libro de Estados Unidos.
La autora de La fruta del borrachero nos entrega una deslumbrante historia caleidoscópica que recupera el legado mìstico de su familia.
A Ingrid Rojas Contreras la magia le corre por las venas. No era una niña fácil de sorprender: creció en medio de la violencia polìtica de los años ochenta y noventa en Colombia, en una casa siempre atestada de gente que venìa a que su madre le leyera el futuro. Su abuelo materno, Nono, era un curandero de renombre, dotado de lo que la familia llamaba "los secretos": el poder de hablar con los muertos, predecir el futuro, tratar a los enfermos y mover las nubes. La madre de Ingrid, la primera mujer en heredar los secretos, era igualmente poderosa. Mami disfrutaba su habilidad de aparecer en dos lugares a la vez, y era capaz de expulsar al más terco de los espìritus usando apenas un vaso de agua.
Rojas Contreras solìa creer que este legado pertenecìa solo a su madre y a su abuelo, hasta que un dìa, en sus veinte y viviendo en Estados Unidos, sufrió una herida en la cabeza que le provocó amnesia. Mientras recuperaba la memoria, su familia le contó que esto habìa sucedido antes: décadas atrás Mami habìa tenido una caìda que también le habìa provocado amnesia; y cuando se recuperó, descubrió que tenìa acceso a los secretos.
En 2012, urgida por un sueño compartido con Mami y sus hermanas, y por la necesidad imperiosa de volver a aprender la historia familiar tras su pérdida de la memoria, Rojas Contreras decidió acompañar a su madre en un viaje a Colombia para exhumar los restos de Nono. Con la guìa impredecible, testaruda y casi siempre divertida de Mami, rastrea sus orìgenes indìgenas y españoles, revelando la violenta historia colonial que, con el paso del tiempo, separarìa a su familia mestiza en dos grupos: los que piensan que los secretos son un don y los que creen que son una maldición.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER From the bestselling author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree, comes a dazzling, kaleidoscopic memoir reclaiming her family's otherworldly legacy.
"Rojas Contreras reacquaints herself with her family's past, weaving their stories with personal narrative, unraveling legacies of violence, machismo and colonialism… In the process, she has written a spellbinding and genre-defying ancestral history."-New York Times Book Review
For Ingrid Rojas Contreras, magic runs in the family. Growing up in the Colombia of the 1980's and 1990's in a house where "what did you dream?"was asked in place of "how are you?" her world was laced with prophecy andviolence. Her maternal grandfather, Nono, was a renowned curandero, acommunity healer gifted with the ability to talk to the dead, tell the future, curethe sick, and move the clouds. As a young girl, Rojas Contreras eavesdroppedon her mother's fortune-telling business from the stairs and waited eagerly forthe moments when Mami appeared in two places at once. She was accustomedto "letting the ghosts in."
So when Ingrid, now living in the U.S., suffered a head injury in her 20's thatleft her with amnesia -an accident eerily similar to a fall that had put hermother in a coma at the age of 8, from which she woke with not just amnesia, but the ability to see ghosts- the family assumes "the secrets" have finally beenpassed down to the next generation. But as Ingrid recovers her memories, theydon't come with supernatural abilities. Rather, she is consumed by a powerfulurge to learn even more about her heritage than she knew before the accident. Spurred by a shared dream among Mami and her sisters, wherein Nonocommunicates that he is unable to rest peacefully in the afterlife, Ingrid joinsher mother on a journey home to Colombia to disinter her grandfather'sremains. With her mother as her unpredictable, stubborn and often hilariousguide, Ingrid traces her lineage back to her indigenous roots, uncovering theviolent and rigid colonial narrative that would eventually break her family intotwo camps: those who believe "the secrets" are a gift, and those who areconvinced they are a curse.
Interweaving family stories more enchanting than any novel, resurrected Colombian history, and her own deeply personal reckonings with the bounds ofreality, Rojas Contreras writes her way through the incomprehensible and intoher inheritance. The result is a luminous testament to the power of storytellingas a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary.
