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Prayers for the stolen : a novel / Jennifer Clement.
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. -- Review from goodreads.com website.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780804138789 (hc.) :
- Physical Description: 212 p. ; 22 cm.
- Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: London : Hogarth, 2014.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Young women > Mexico > Fiction. Mothers and daughters > Fiction. Drug traffic > Fiction Violence > Fiction. Gangs > Fiction. Women prisoners > Fiction. Mexico > Fiction. |
Available copies
- 3 of 5 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
- 1 of 1 copy available at Castlegar Public Library. (Show)
Holds
- 0 current holds with 5 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlegar Public Library | FIC CLE (Text) | 35146001846815 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Fort St. James Public Library | CLE (Text) | 35196000288527 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Nelson Public Library | F CLE (Text) | 3514830018539 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Checked out | 2025-04-17 |
| Sechelt Public Library | F CLEM (Text) | 33260000296922 | Fiction | Not holdable | Lost | - |
| Williams Lake Branch | CLE (Text) | 33923005299866 | General Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2014 January #1
*Starred Review* In Clement's powerful new novel, Ladydi Garcia Martinez tells the story of how she grew up in a remote Mexican mountain village disguised as a boy. This was to ensure that the marauding gangs of drug dealers believed that the village was populated solely by adult women and young boys. No men and absolutely no pretty young girls. It's a survival strategy that works only marginally well. When it doesn't work, well, it's bad. It seems as if these thugs are always lurking, always hovering over villages, always ready to kidnap young, lovely girls. Ironically, it is the lure of this gang life or the flimsy promise of making it in the U.S. that has induced the men of Ladydi's village to leave. And so her History Channelâeducated mother does the best she can with whatever meager means are available to raise and protect her daughter in this tenuous, matriarchal culture. It is her mother's pliable morality that defines her character and in a paradoxical way arms Ladydi to survive in modern Mexico. Clement's deft first-person narrative style imbues authenticity to her depiction of a world turned upside down by drug cartels, police corruption, and American exploitation. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2013 December #1
A young girl struggles to survive under the desolate but terrifying umbrella of the Mexican drug wars. It wouldn't be incorrect to call this a novel of collateral damage. We hear all the time about the executions and decapitations of the bloody wars in Mexico, not to mention the endless contest over immigration reform as desperate men cross the United States border daily, running either to or from something. But what happens to those poor souls left behind? That's the premise behind this spare, almost noir novel by Mexico-based American poet Clement (The Poison That Fascinates, 2008, etc.) that tells the story of 13-year-old Ladydi Garcia Martinez, who lives in a small village in southwestern Mexico. Her home is very much a woman's world, made so because all the men have either fled to the United States to start new families, been kidnapped to work for the cartels or been murdered. It's a world where mothers bruise, maim or disguise their daughters to prevent them from being kidnapped and sold as human chattel. Ladydi's drunken mother contemplates knocking out her teeth, while Ladydi and her friends scramble to conceal themselves in holes in the ground as convoys rumble in. Ladydi's friend Paula, kidnapped, returns with tales of girls burning themselves with cigarettes to mark their corpses. "If we're found dead someplace everyone will know we were stolen. It is our mark. My cigarette burns are a message," says Paula. "You do want people to know it's you. Otherwise how will our mothers find us?" Eventually, Ladydi escapes to become a nanny for a rich couple in Acapulco, but a baseless misunderstanding lands her in a women's prison, where Ladydi must rely on her fellow inmates to retain her last vestiges of hope. Some thematic elements recall Clement's 2002 novel A True Story Based on Lies, but overall, this is a much richer and more durable tale. A stark portrait of women abused or abandoned by every side in an awful conflict. Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2013 November #4
The first novel from the American-born but Mexico-based Clement, president of PEN Mexico, to be published in the U.S. is an expose of the hideously dangerous lives girls lead in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Despite its social significance, the book doesn't read like homework; Clement is more a poet than a documentarian, and the girls and women of the village she chronicles are complex individuals. Ladydi, named after Princess Diana, spends her childhood dressed as a boy, as do all the girls from her village, since they will otherwise be kidnapped and forced into prostitution or drug smuggling. Most of the men from Ladydi's village left a long time ago. The community is shocked when one kidnapped girlâthe transcendently beautiful, now near-catatonic Paulaâmanages to return. Ladydi, thinking to save herself from Paula's fate, decides to accept an offer of work from Mike, her best friend Maria's brother, as a nanny in Acapulco, where, as he tells her, "people are rich, rich, rich." However, Ladydi soon discovers that in a corrupt system, any apparent opportunity comes with hidden traps. Clement treats the brutal material honestly but not sensationally, conveying the harshest moments secondhand rather than directly, and ultimately allows Ladydi to continue to hope. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME Entertainment. (Feb.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC
