When a Woman Rises

When a woman rises, a community is nourished. In the Maya township of Chenalhó in Chiapas, Veronica, a teenage girl, is recovering from a disastrous early marriage. Spurred on by a community program of women telling their stories, she asks her mother Magdalena to record the story of her growing up and that of her best friend, Lucia. Magdalena, step by step, day by day, summons the soul of her comadre who has disappeared. She tells how, as young girls, they yearned to be teachers. How poverty, cultural beliefs, and gender roles stole away their dreams. Magdalena married and bore children, finding expression as a community organizer. Lucia’s path diverged radically. Her gift was to be a healing woman, but without knowing how or why, she fell in love with a nun. Distraught, she joined the Zapatistas in the wilderness and struggled with alcoholism. Through it all, Magdalena and Lucia maintained their deep friendship. Then Lucia went north to work in the fields and disappeared. Veronica, with her mother’s help, will carry this understanding into the future.

ISBN 978-1-941026-84-7, trade paper $16.95; published by Cinco Puntos Press in 2018. Now distributed by Lee and Low Books

From the book jacket:

“With the deft touch of a novelist and the sharp eye of an anthropologist, [Christine Eber] tells a luminous, spiritually-charged tale of an indigenous Maya community adapting to wrenching demands of the outside world. When a Woman Rises is a jewel of a book—engaging, moving, tragic, and ultimately transporting.”

—Peter Canby, Senior Editor, New Yorker

For a recent review by novelist JJ Amorowo Wilson go to swwordfiesta.org

Winner, Multicultural (NM), 2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards

Winner, Silver Award, Most Inspiring Book of Fiction, 2019 International Latino Book Awards
Winner, Silver Award for Multicultural Fiction, 2019 Independent Publishers Book Awards
Finalist, 2019 New Mexico Press Women’s Zia Award for Fiction
Finalist, 2019 Balcones Fiction Award

Cuando una mujer se levanta

Thanks to the support of over 125 donors, 2,000 copies of Cuando una mujer se levanta, the Spanish translation by Camilo Pérez Bustillo of When a Woman Rises, are being made available for free in Chiapas, Mexico to the Maya people who inspired the book. The books were printed in April 2020 by Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Editorial in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México. Please see blog “Into Mayas’ Hands” on this webpage with the story of the Spanish edition.

ISBN 978-1-947627-40-6, trade paper, $16.95. Published in April 2021 by Cinco Puntos Press. Now distributed by Lee and Low Books.