Publisher: Dundurn Press (June 18, 2024)
Category: Historical Fiction, African American Historical Fiction, Women’s Literature
Tour Dates September 10-October 3, 2024
ISBN: 978-1459752771
Available in Print and ebook, 306 pages
Description What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel
An enchanting telling of the complex and fascinating life of real-life Luisa Abrego of Seville, who forges a new life after freedom from slavery in colonial Mexico and gets caught in the far-reaching Spanish Inquisition.
Luisa Abrego, a slave in Seville, is set free upon her master’s death and marries a white man. After boarding Luisa’s illegitimate child with the nuns of St. Clare, the couple sets out for Mexico. There Luisa is accused of bigamy and tried in the court of the Inquisition.
The narratives here are not Luisa’s own. They are those of witnesses who encountered her: housewives, nuns, miners, lawyers, inquisitors. These are European voices, in whose accounts, a fractured portrait of a fascinating and complex woman emerges, like glimpses of a figure moving past a mirror.
Based on 16th century trial records of the real Luisa, this novel is not just one woman’s life in fragments, but a carefully researched imagining, told in vivid, distinct voices, of how the Inquisition affected the Spanish colonies.
Review What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel
“I wondered how the alumbrados would fare under the watchful eye of that court of justice once it started operating in Mexico – not much better, I warrant, than under the Spanish institution whose judgment they fled.”
A fascinating look at a very controversial time in history, ‘What They Said About Luisa,’ takes the life of a real woman, Luisa Abrego and gives a realistic take on what the people around her might have felt. Each chapter of this novel is told from a different perspective – one person who was affected by Luisa Abrego, the former slave who became a free woman and traveled to the new world.
Luisa first learned about the concept of bigamy after traveling to Mexico with her new husband, and began to fear that she was guilty of it, herself. See, Luisa had been proposed to by another young man shortly after she was granted her freedom at the death of her master. Although the two were not married in practice, the Catholic church’s rules for marriage essentially said that they were married in spirit. Luisa gave herself over to the Spanish Inquisition for trial, essentially leaving her fate in the hands of God.
Obviously, I’m not going to spoil the ending of the book, but with a writer like Ericka Rummel, even a story that you may have heard before becomes something new and exciting!
I have read four of Rummel’s other works, The ‘Loneliness of the Time Traveler,’ ‘Evita and Me,’ ‘The Inquisitor’s Niece,’ and ‘Head Games.’ Every one enthralled me. Rummel has such a talent for storytelling – particularly in historical fiction – that I find myself thrilled whenever I get the opportunity to read one of her novels! I can’t wait to find out what she has in store for us next!
About Erika Rummel
Award winning author, Erika Rummel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books and ten novels. Her tenth novel, ‘’What They Said About Luisa’ was published on June 18, 2024..
She won the Random House Creative Writing Award (2011) for a chapter from ‘The Effects of Isolation on the Brain’ and The Colorado Independent Publishers’ Association’ Award for Best Historical Novel, in 2018. She is the recipient of a Getty Fellowship and the Killam Award.
Erika grew up in Vienna, emigrated to Canada and obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto. She taught at Wilfrid Laurier and U of Toronto. She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Erika’s Website: http://www.erikarummel.com/
Erika’s Blog: http://rummelsincrediblestories.blogspot.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/historycracks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erikarummelauthor
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Giveaway What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel
This giveaway is for 1 print copy or 1 pdf copy. Print is open to the U.S. only. eBook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on October 3, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.
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