Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
'Now we make you ugly,' my mother said. 'The best thing you can be in Mexico is an ugly girl.' The Narcos only had to hear there was a pretty girl around and they’d sweep onto our lands in black SUVs and carry the girl off. Not one of the stolen girls had ever come back, except for Paula. She came back a year after she’d been kidnapped. She held a baby bottle in one hand. She wore seven earrings that climbed the cupped edge of her left ear in a line of blue, yellow and green studs and a tattoo that snaked around her wrist. 'Did you see that? Did you see Paula’s tattoo? my mother said. You know what that means, right? Jesus, Mary’s son and Son of God, and the angels in heaven protect us all.' At the time, I didn’t know what that meant. But I was going to find out. Guaranteed.
The theme of Prayers for the Stolen is the wanton violence inflicted on women and the destruction of communities as a result of the drug trade in Mexico, but Clement's eye for the revealing detail, the simple poetry of her language and the visceral authenticity of her characters turn that deadening reality into a compelling, tragically beautiful novel -- Yann Martel
A moving novel narrated by an open-hearted teenage girl growing up in the borderlands of Mexico controlled entirely by the drug cartelsLyrical, disturbing and not without optimism, this work deserved far more acclaim when published last year -- Kazuo Ishiguro * New Statesman *
Prayers For The Stolen is stark and brutal, but not without happiness. “Mexico is a warren of hidden women”, says Jennifer Clement. This book is a way of seeing them * Stylist *
Every sentence in Prayers for the Stolen is direct, potent, unexpected; twisting on the page like a knife in the gut… This work also gives us all of a novel's pleasures – a story laden with significance and drama and meaning, a keen feeling of relationship between reader and characters, a fully realised world through which we may roam -- Kirsty Gunn * Guardian *
[Clement] shows the black comedy in the details and the emergency in the broader picture -- Gaby Wood * Telegraph *
A moving novel narrated by an open-hearted teenage girl growing up in the borderlands of Mexico controlled entirely by the drug cartelsLyrical, disturbing and not without optimism, this work deserved far more acclaim when published last year -- Kazuo Ishiguro * New Statesman *
Prayers For The Stolen is stark and brutal, but not without happiness. “Mexico is a warren of hidden women”, says Jennifer Clement. This book is a way of seeing them * Stylist *
Every sentence in Prayers for the Stolen is direct, potent, unexpected; twisting on the page like a knife in the gut… This work also gives us all of a novel's pleasures – a story laden with significance and drama and meaning, a keen feeling of relationship between reader and characters, a fully realised world through which we may roam -- Kirsty Gunn * Guardian *
[Clement] shows the black comedy in the details and the emergency in the broader picture -- Gaby Wood * Telegraph *
Jennifer Clement is the President of PEN International. She was born in 1960 and has lived in Mexico since 1961. She is a graduate of New York University. She is the author of the memoir Widow Basquiat and three novels: A True Story Based on Lies, The Poison That Fascinates and Prayers for the Stolen. She is also the author of several books of poetry, and is co-founder and director of the San Miguel Poetry Week. Jennifer Clement was awarded the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Fellowship for Literature 2012. She was President of PEN Mexico from 2009 to 2012 and is a member of Mexico's prestigious Sistema Nacional de Creadores. She lives in Mexico City.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781781090176 |
| ISBN 10 | 1781090173 |
| Title | Prayers for the Stolen |
| Author | Jennifer Clement |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2014-02-06 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Prizes | Long-listed for I.M.P.A.C. Dublin Award 2015 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |