Book description
"It is a great beauty of a book, and I am so proud of you for standing with and for the disappeared. A sister, a lover, a witness."
--Alice Walker
Mary is nineteen and living alone in Albuquerque. Adrift in the wake of her mother's death, she longs for something…
Why read it?
1 author picked Mother Tongue as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Many books about New Mexico describe the region as if it were a place unto itself, distinct from the rest of the nation and the world.
Martínez’s novel follows Central American refugees during the 1970s and 1980s who made their way to the state as a part of the sanctuary movement in which Martínez herself participated. I love the depictions of Albuquerque apartments, which capture the sparse, yearning beauty of relationships formed across barriers of language, culture, and violence.
From Flannery's list on The best creative writing to understand the complexities of New Mexico culture.
If you love Mother Tongue...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
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