Description

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 college professor in Brujera for Beginners reminds us Theres always a price for conjuring in darkness You wont always know what it is until payment is due This commitment drives the disturbingly faithful widow in Tijuca who promises to bury her husbands head in the rich dirt of the jungle and the sisters in Moksha who are tempted by an obsidian dagger once held by a vampiric idol

But magic isnt limited to the women who wield it Animals are powerful magicians too Subversive pigeons and hungry jaguars are called upon in Tunnels and a little girl runs with a resurrected sabertoothed tiger in Burial A colorful catalog of gallery exhibits from animals in therapy is featured in Art Show including the Almost Philandering Fox and the Paranoid Peacocks

Brimming with sharp wit and ferocious female intuition these stories bubble over into the titular novella Maria Mariaa family drama set in a reimagined California rainforest that explores the legacies of three Marias and possibly all Marias