The Witches of El Paso: A Novel

by Luis Jaramillo

Overview

“Luis Jaramillo weaves a captivating tale of family, tradition, and the enduring power of love.” —Reyna Grande, author of A Ballad of Love and Glory

A lawyer and her elderly great-aunt use their supernatural gifts to find a lost child in this “wild, wondrous novel about the magic that is singing all around us” (Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth)—in the vein of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina and La Hacienda.

If you call to the witches, they will come.

1943, El Paso, Texas: teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters and longing for a life of adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she’ll end up like the scary old curandera down the street. Nena prays for help, and when the mysterious Sister Benedicta arrives late one night, Nena follows her across the borders of space and time. In colonial Mexico, Nena grows into her power, finding love and learning that magic always comes with a price.

In the present day, Nena’s grandniece, Marta, balances a struggling legal aid practice with motherhood and the care of the now ninety-three-year-old Nena. When Marta agrees to help search for a daughter Nena left in the past, the two forge a fierce connection. Marta’s own supernatural powers emerge, awakening her to new possibilities that threaten the life she has constructed.

“Sexy, smart, and soulful, Luis Jaramillo’s The Witches of El Paso pulls us across borders and time to get to the essence of what it means for families to survive this beautiful, fractured world” (Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668033210
Publisher:	Atria/Primero Sueno Press
Publication date:	10/08/2024
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	16,869
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Luis Jaramillo is the author of The Witches of El Paso and the award-winning short story collection, The Doctor’s Wife. His writing has appeared in LitHub, BOMB Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. He is an assistant professor of creative writing at The New School. He received an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and an MFA from The New School. Find out more at LuisJaramillo.com.

Editorial Reviews

10/21/2024

A middle-aged woman comes to terms with the magic harnessed by her great-aunt in this spirited gothic debut novel from Jaramillo (The Doctor’s Wife, a story collection). As a wife, mother, and high-powered lawyer, Marta is distracted by the need to care for her late grandmother’s 93-year-old sister, Nena, who now lives alone but was institutionalized as a teenager, after she claimed to have time-traveled to an 18th-century convent. In a parallel narrative, the reader learns Nena’s claim was true, and that she was summoned by witches disguised as nuns. The witches teach Nena how to harness the spirit of La Vista, a powerful force derived from nature. After she falls in love with Emiliano, the brother of one of the sisters, she uses the power to heal him from smallpox. Then Emiliano gets her pregnant, and after giving birth to a girl, the sisters send her back to her old life without the baby. Marta’s story is less developed, and the conclusion feels rushed, but Jaramillo evocatively portrays the ways in which she and Nena gain strength from the land and their family. It’s an inspired effort. Agent: Kent Wolf, Neon Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Luis Jaramillo weaves a captivating tale of family, tradition, and the enduring power of love. His vivid prose and intriguing plot make his novel hard to put down!”—Reyna Grande, author of A Ballad of Love and Glory

“Gorgeous and thrilling, The Witches of El Paso casts a revelatory spell. I didn't want it to end.”—R. O. Kwon, Bestselling author of Exhibit and The Incendiaries

“Spanning borders and centuries, The Witches of El Paso is a wild, wondrous novel about the magic that is singing all around us. With this story, Luis Jaramillo shows us how to catch the tune.”—Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth, an international bestseller and National Book Award Finalist

“Sexy, smart and soulful, Luis Jaramillo’s The Witches of El Paso pulls us across borders and time to get to the essence of what it means for families to survive this beautiful, fractured world.”—Mira Jacob, national bestselling author of Good Talk

"Jaramillo’s atmospheric prose conjures the dusty El Paso of the past, and depictions of La Vista vibrate with 'colorful knots of waves,' glowing indigo, maroon, and bright pink, yielding 'a wild spell, like yeast in the air.' This riveting page-turner affirms the adage, 'Family stories teach us how to live. Family secrets teach us to kill parts of ourselves.'

"Gripping and cinematic, the novel’s worlds of El Paso past and present will bewitch and enrapture."—Kirkus (starred review)

“Jaramillo's debut novel strikingly portrays a family’s unrelenting love and survival across borders, generations, and adversity with vivid descriptions of El Paso, Juarez, and the supernatural. Fans of Isabel Cañas, Zoraida Córdova, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia who enjoy historical fiction and subtle fantasy will devour this book.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 2024-07-10
A busy El Paso lawyer embarks on a supernatural journey when she uncovers a startling truth about her great-aunt.

In 1943, Elena Eduviges Montoya, called “Nena” by her family, resigns herself to serving her older sisters as a housemaid and nanny while World War II rages, “biding her time until the Germans attacked.” But one sweltering afternoon, Nena has a vision foretelling the death of their landlord, and that night she receives a midnight visit from black-clad Sister Benedicta de la Cruz, who transports her to 1792—when El Paso del Norte was still part of New Spain—and leads her to a strange convent, where the nuns are likewise afflicted by visions. Nena learns she must remain in this enchanted realm in order to undertake training to channel “La Vista,” that part of God that comprises nature and chaos, before she can return home. Fast forward to the present day, and Nena’s great-niece, Marta, juggles her roles as a lawyer at a struggling firm, a mother to two boys, and a wife stuck in a humdrum marriage. All this gets turned upside down when an alarming kitchen incident involving the elderly Nena, burned rice, and handsome firemen brings Nena to live with Marta’s family. After Marta has an unnerving experience with seemingly supernatural soot (“when she opens her eyes again, the wall continues to blink, soot there, soot gone”), Nena comes clean about a secret she’s kept for a lifetime: She gave birth to a baby, Rosa, during her time on “the other side.” The revelation sets the women on a path to recover Rosa from the shadowy realm of El Paso del Norte. Alternating chapters between Nena’s past and Marta’s present, Jaramillo braids the storylines together like a mal de ojo bracelet, seamlessly weaving in Spanish language terms and Mexican cultural touchstones such as pozole, rebozo, and el aquelarre. Jaramillo’s atmospheric prose conjures the dusty El Paso of the past, and depictions of La Vista vibrate with “colorful knots of waves,” glowing indigo, maroon, and bright pink, yielding “a wild spell, like yeast in the air.” This riveting page-turner affirms the adage, “Family stories teach us how to live. Family secrets teach us to kill parts of ourselves.”

Gripping and cinematic, the novel’s worlds of El Paso past and present will bewitch and enrapture.

Kirkus Reviews