The haunting novel of love and survival that inspired Mexico’s official submission for International Feature Film—now shortlisted for the 94th Academy Awards® and streaming on Netflix
“Prayers for the Stolen gives us words for what we haven’t had words for before, like something translated from a dream in a secret language. . . . Beguiling, and even crazily enchanting.”—Francisco Goldman, New York Times Book Review
FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER PRIZE • AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
Ladydi Garcia Martínez is fierce, funny, and smart. She was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. Here in the shadow of the drug war, bodies turn up on the outskirts of the village to be taken back to the earth by scorpions and snakes. School is held sporadically, when a volunteer can be coerced away from the big city for a semester. In Guerrero the drug lords are kings, and mothers disguise their daughters as sons, or when that fails they “make them ugly”—cropping their hair, blackening their teeth, anything to protect them from the rapacious grasp of the cartels. And when the black SUVs roll through town, Ladydi and her friends burrow into holes in their backyards like animals, tucked safely out of sight.
While her mother waits in vain for her husband’s return, Ladydi and her friends dream of a future that holds more promise than mere survival, finding humor, solidarity, and fun in the face of so much tragedy. When Ladydi is offered work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, she seizes the chance, and finds her first taste of love with a young caretaker there. But when a local murder tied to the cartel implicates a friend, Ladydi’s future takes a dark turn. Despite the odds against her, this spirited heroine’s resilience and resolve bring hope to otherwise heartbreaking conditions.
An illuminating and affecting portrait of women in rural Mexico, and a stunning exploration of the hidden consequences of an unjust war, Prayers for the Stolen is an unforgettable story of friendship, family, and determination.
Originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall:
Prayers for the Stolen is set in a tiny village outside of Chilpancingo in Guerrero, where poverty and alcoholism are the least of these characters' worries. Drug traffickers rule the area. People are kidnapped on a regular basis. Girls are either disguised as boys or made "ugly" in a seemingly vain attempt to prevent being abducted and sold. Doctors and teachers appear intermittently, sometimes only with armed guards, because they are too afraid to venture into the area. Law enforcement and the justice system are corrupt. And on and on and on.
If a cartel kidnaps you, like the Zetas, then you go to the land of dead immigrants, a special death place, without a birth certificate or gravestone, and nothing is worse than this.
Ladydi is a compelling main character who pulls you into her dangerous world, making it impossible to turn away. She shows us the importance of close family relationships and friendships in the face of violent, appalling conditions. With a bright and optimistic spirit, she perseveres when it seems completely futile to forge ahead.
In many ways, I was reminded of Silvia Avallone's Swimming to Elba: How does a person escape the circumstances of the location in which she happens to be born? What compels her to try at all, when things are so dire?
I felt lukewarm toward the ending, but at least Clement leaves her readers with the possibility of hope. Prayers for the Stolen is a powerful, shocking novel that left me haunted by the plight of its characters.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.
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