9780063241091
After the death of his brother, a grief-stricken young man seeks refuge and oblivion in a secluded fishing village dominated by a family of brujas in this haunting debut novel, inspired, in part, by Diné history and thought.
Suffering the unbearable loss of his little brother, Kai, Damien heads as far south as his old truck and his legs will allow, landing in a fishing village beyond the reach of his past where he hopes to finally forget.
But the village carries grief of its own. Mourning the death of a young woman from the community’s most powerful family, they do not trust this stranger new to their town. The object of gossip and suspicion, Damien is ignored by all except the dead woman’s mother, Ana María, who offers him a room and a job.
Grateful for her kindness, Damien soon begins to fall under Ana María’s charismatic spell. But how long can he resist the rumors linking her and her daughter’s death? Or deny his strange kinship with one of Ana María’s surviving daughters, Marta, who knows too well the grief that follows the loss of a sibling—and who is driven by a fierce need for revenge? Swiftly, Damien finds himself caught in a power struggle between the brujas, a whirlwind battle that threatens to sweep the whole village out to sea.
Resonant with the Diné creation story and the unshakable weight of the Long Walk—the forced removal of the Navajo from their land—a mesmerizingly original tale that brilliantly, poignantly explores our capacity for grief and resilience and its lasting effects on the soul.