2022 National Book Award for Fiction (longlist)
Conjuring entrancing tales of Mexican American mystics and misfits, Marytza K. Rubio shatters the boundaries of reality with this fiercely imaginative debut.
“The first witch of the waters was born in Destruction. The moon named her Maria.”
Set against the tropics and megacities of the Americas, Maria, Maria takes inspiration from wild creatures, tarot, and the porous borders between life and death. Motivated by love and its inverse, grief, the characters who inhabit these stories negotiate boldly with nature to cast their desired ends. As the enigmatic community college professor in “Brujería for Beginners” reminds us: “There’s always a price for conjuring in darkness. You won’t always know what it is until payment is due.” This commitment drives the disturbingly faithful widow in “Tijuca,” who promises to bury her husband’s head in the rich dirt of the jungle, and the sisters in “Moksha,” who are tempted by a sleek obsidian dagger once held by a vampiric idol.
But magic isn’t limited to the women who wield it. As Rubio so brilliantly elucidates, animals are powerful magicians too. Subversive pigeons and hungry jaguars are called upon in “Tunnels,” and a lonely little girl runs free with a resurrected saber-toothed tiger in “Burial.” A colorful catalog of gallery exhibits from animals in therapy is featured in “Art Show,” including the Almost Philandering Fox, who longs after the red pelt of another, and the recently rehabilitated Paranoid Peacocks.
Brimming with sharp wit and ferocious female intuition, these stories bubble over into the titular novella, “Maria, Maria”—a tropigoth family drama set in a reimagined California rainforest that explores the legacies of three Marias, and possibly all Marias. Writing in prose so lush it threatens to creep off the page, Rubio emerges as an ineffable new voice in contemporary short fiction.
Genre: Literary Fiction
“The first witch of the waters was born in Destruction. The moon named her Maria.”
Set against the tropics and megacities of the Americas, Maria, Maria takes inspiration from wild creatures, tarot, and the porous borders between life and death. Motivated by love and its inverse, grief, the characters who inhabit these stories negotiate boldly with nature to cast their desired ends. As the enigmatic community college professor in “Brujería for Beginners” reminds us: “There’s always a price for conjuring in darkness. You won’t always know what it is until payment is due.” This commitment drives the disturbingly faithful widow in “Tijuca,” who promises to bury her husband’s head in the rich dirt of the jungle, and the sisters in “Moksha,” who are tempted by a sleek obsidian dagger once held by a vampiric idol.
But magic isn’t limited to the women who wield it. As Rubio so brilliantly elucidates, animals are powerful magicians too. Subversive pigeons and hungry jaguars are called upon in “Tunnels,” and a lonely little girl runs free with a resurrected saber-toothed tiger in “Burial.” A colorful catalog of gallery exhibits from animals in therapy is featured in “Art Show,” including the Almost Philandering Fox, who longs after the red pelt of another, and the recently rehabilitated Paranoid Peacocks.
Brimming with sharp wit and ferocious female intuition, these stories bubble over into the titular novella, “Maria, Maria”—a tropigoth family drama set in a reimagined California rainforest that explores the legacies of three Marias, and possibly all Marias. Writing in prose so lush it threatens to creep off the page, Rubio emerges as an ineffable new voice in contemporary short fiction.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Reading Marytza K. Rubio's debut is like discovering the one album and band that gets you through; it will make you walk into an open field and just wait for the mothership, because you'll be ready." - Fernando A Flores
"Maria, Maria is pure magic: fearless, funny, and endlessly original. Full of dark wit and sparkling charm, this is a shimmering portal of a book. Marytza K. Rubio is an absolute master of the fantastic." - Kimberly King Parsons
"About halfway through every story in this startling, brilliant collection, I found myself shouting 'HOW DARE THIS STORY BE SO WILD?!' Read if you love deeply original tales filled with magic and worldbuilding, read if you love lush and evocative prose-but be warned, if you read this book in public, you might just start yelling out loud in delight, too." - Amber Sparks
"Maria, Maria is an exquisitely crafted collection featuring brainy Latinx outsiders with tons of spirit. They are warriors and lovers, attuned to the forces of darkness and beauty, and Rubio tells their stories with a masterful style and wit." - Héctor Tobar
"Maria, Maria is a collection and a cosmology, sentences bursting with color, pages brimming with invention. Beguiling and playful, Marytza K. Rubio's writing is endlessly enjoyable to read. A striking new voice." - Charles Yu
"Maria, Maria is pure magic: fearless, funny, and endlessly original. Full of dark wit and sparkling charm, this is a shimmering portal of a book. Marytza K. Rubio is an absolute master of the fantastic." - Kimberly King Parsons
"About halfway through every story in this startling, brilliant collection, I found myself shouting 'HOW DARE THIS STORY BE SO WILD?!' Read if you love deeply original tales filled with magic and worldbuilding, read if you love lush and evocative prose-but be warned, if you read this book in public, you might just start yelling out loud in delight, too." - Amber Sparks
"Maria, Maria is an exquisitely crafted collection featuring brainy Latinx outsiders with tons of spirit. They are warriors and lovers, attuned to the forces of darkness and beauty, and Rubio tells their stories with a masterful style and wit." - Héctor Tobar
"Maria, Maria is a collection and a cosmology, sentences bursting with color, pages brimming with invention. Beguiling and playful, Marytza K. Rubio's writing is endlessly enjoyable to read. A striking new voice." - Charles Yu
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