Inspired by the author’s years living in Mexico and ten years of field research, this transporting, visceral novel tells the story of young women in rural Guerrero who live in the shadows of the drug war. The poetic narrative of heroine Ladydi–disguised by her mother as a boy for protection from the vicious cartels—shows great resilience and resolve as a young woman caught in a real-life nightmare. This fictionalized work by award-winning author and the former President of PEN Mexico, ensures that the most vulnerable voices cannot be silenced at a time when fiction never seemed truer to fact than the present.
Main image: Cover art, Prayers for the Stolen and Jennifer Clement, credit: Barbara Sibley.