The Threads of the Heart - Softcover

Martinez, Carole

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1609450876 ISBN 13: 9781609450878

Publisher: Europa Editions, 2012

Synopsis

They say Frasquita knows magic, that she is a healer with occult powers, that perhaps she is a sorceress. She does indeed possess a remarkable gift, one that has been passed down to the women in her family for generations. From rags, off-cuts, and rough fabric she can create gowns and other garments so magnificent, so alive, that they are capable of masking any kind defect or deformity (and pregnancies!). They bestow a breathtaking and blinding beauty on whoever wears them.

But Fasquita's gift makes others in her small Andalusian village jealous. And to make matters worse, Frasquita is an adulteress. (It matters not that her betrayal came at her husband's behest after he gambled on her honor, and lost, at a cock fight.) She is hounded and eventually banished from her home. What follows is an extraordinary adventure as she travels across southern Spain all the way to Africa with her five children in tow. Her exile becomes a quest for a better life, for herself and her daughters, whom she hopes can escape the ironclad fate of her family of sorcerers.

The Threads of the Heart possesses the lyric beauty of a prose poem and the narrative power of a myth.

About this title

About the Author:

Author Carole Martinez, a former actress and photographer, currently teaches French in a middle school in Issy-les-Moulineaux. She began writing during her maternity leave in 2005.

From Booklist:

Passed down from mother to daughter, a simple wooden box contains the unknown legacy of generations of women in Frasquita’s family. When it is her turn to unearth the chest from its hiding place beneath gnarled olive trees, Frasquita discovers mere needles and threads, but these will be enough to cast her spell and seal the fate of herself and her children. A saint’s heart, a feathered wedding dress, the coat of a local landowner: all will be enriched by Frasquita’s mythical talents as she weaves an otherworldly wisdom and protection into the meager bits of fabric before her. Though men and beasts will be healed by her prowess, her skills may not be enough to protect her son and daughters as they travel from the mountains of war-torn Spain to the deserts of North Africa. Rich in seductive energy and teeming with lush imagery, Martinez’s epic fable of misunderstood women struggling to survive in misguided societies is an evocative but cautionary tale of hubris and humility. --Carol Haggas

About this edition

• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1609450876
• ISBN 13: 9781609450878
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400