Set in northern Mexico in the 1870s, Spirits of the Ordinary tells interweaving stories centered on Zacarías 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. Zacarías’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, Zacarías’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 Alcalá writes in her introduction, ‘magic and holiness are all around us.’
Table of Content
Foreword by Rigoberto González, Introduction by Kathleen Alcalá, 15 chapters and an Epilogue.
About the author
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ 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.
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