#CurrentlyReading - The Simple Art of Killing a Woman by Patricia Melo, translated from Portuguese by Sophie Lewis
I started reading an e-arc of one of our January Diverse Reads, The Simple Art of Killing a Woman a few days ago and WHEW, chile! It's already dug its grip into me.
The Simple Art of Killing a Woman by best-selling Brazilian novelist Patrícia Melo is a "genre-defying tale of women in the Amazon and their reckoning with brutal oppression—by turns poetic, humorous, dark, and inspiring.
To escape her newly aggressive lover, a young lawyer accepts an assignment in the Amazonian border town of Cruzeiro do Sul. There, she meets Carla, a local prosecutor, and Marcos, the son of an indigenous woman, and learns about the rampant attacks on the region’s women, which have grown so commonplace that the cases quickly fill her large notebook. What she finds in the jungle is not only persistent racism, patriarchy, and deforestation, but a deep longing for answers to her enigmatic past. Through the ritual use of ayahuasca, she meets a chorus of Icamiabas, warrior women bent on vengeance—and gradually, she recovers the details of her own mother’s early death."
I'm only a few chapters in but here are some chest-punch quotes:
"I could not believe this was happening—my gorgeous partner, this deliciously sexy, cultured man with the ready laugh whom I'd just begun to call my boyfriend a few months ago and who, 'til now, had been courteous, respectful, and loving as I'd wish a boyfriend to be—this man was bellowing a fury of wounded propriety, without the least provocation. . ."
"You never imagine that a guy like this, a Wittgenstein reader and yoga fan, will hit you in the face at a lawyers' New Year's Eve party. But the statistics show that it happens a lot. And that lots of men don't stop at a slap. They'd actually rather kill you."
"Slut. Cow. B*tch. The names are all variations on a theme. Bimbo. Tramp. Tart."
"We need to talk about the state-authorized massacre of women. Ten thousand unsolved femicide cases in the courts: that is my subject."
WOW, right!? I can't wait to keep reading this and share my thoughts with you all.
Grab a copy from our website as your January Diverse Read or shop via Bookshop to support our bookstore.
