Overview

Set in northern Mexico in the 1870s, Spirits of the Ordinary tells interweaving stories centered on Zacarias Carabajal, who leaves his comfortable city home to prospect for gold in the wilderness while his abandoned wife, Estela, struggles to build a new life. Visions, dreams, and portents are part of the everyday world of Spirits of the Ordinary. Estela's siblings, the enigmatic and supernaturally beautiful twins Manzana and Membrillo, discover their gift for water divining. Zacarias's mother, Mariana, has been silent all her adult life after experiencing an apocalyptic vision of angels in her teens. His father, Julio, is an apothecary devoted to Torah study and Jewish mysticism, practicing his religion in secret as generations before him have done. Meanwhile, Zacarias's wanderings turn into a spiritual quest that takes him to the ancient cliff dwellings known as Casas Grandes. Presenting a tapestry of fascinating lives as well as the story of a reluctant mystic in a spectacular desert landscape, Spirits of the Ordinary demonstrates that, as Alcala writes in her introduction, magic and holiness are all around us.

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9780997946888

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Reviews

A poignant tale wrapped in magic . . . echoes of Isabel Allende and Laura Esquivel. -Washington Post Book World Kathleen Alcala is a writer with beautiful gifts. Her prose is continually arresting - there's a spirit in it which is not ordinary. She has given us a strong and finely rendered book in which passions both ordinary and extraordinary are made vivid and convincing. - Larry McMurtry ...it is testimony to Ms. Alcala's vivid talents as a storyteller, and to the mystical allure of the threads of magic realism that run through her narrative, that we come to care about many of her characters, and to wonder what destinies await them in her next book. -Laurel Graeber, New York Times Book Review

Author Information

KATHLEEN ALCALA was born in Compton, California, to Mexican parents, and grew up in San Bernardino. She has a BA in linguistics from Stanford University, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, and an MFA from the University of New Orleans. Both a graduate of and instructor in the Clarion West Science Fiction and Fantasy program, her work embraces both traditional and innovative storytelling techniques. She is the author of six award-winning books that include a collection of stories, three novels, a book of essays, and, most recently, The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, from the University of Washington Press. http: //www.kathleenalcala.com

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