A woman from an underprivileged region of contemporary Argentina teams up with a withdrawn police officer when she develops uncontrollable pica that triggers visions of murdered and missing people, including her own mother. A first novel. 25,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)
"Set in an unnamed slum in contemporary Argentina, Eartheater is the story of a young woman who finds herself drawn to eating the earth - a compulsion that gives her visions of broken and lost lives. With her first taste of dirt, she learns the horrifying truth of her mother's death. Disturbed by what she witnesses, the woman keeps her visions to herself. But when Earth-eater begins an unlikely relationship with a withdrawn police officer, word of her ability begins to spread, and soon desperate members of her community beg for her help, anxious to uncover the truth about their own loved ones. Surreal and haunting, spare yet complex, Earth-eater is a dark, emotionally resonant tale told from a feminist perspective that brilliantly explores the stories of those left behind - the women enduring the pain of uncertainty, whose lives have been shaped by violence and loss."--Publisher. - (Baker & Taylor)
A woman from an slum in contemporary Argentina teams up with a withdrawn police officer when she develops a compulsive urge to eat dirt that triggers visions of murdered and missing people, including her own mother. - (Baker & Taylor)
NAMED A "FALL 2020 MUST-READ" AND ONE OF THE "BEST BOOKS OF FALL 2020" BY TIME, VULTURE, THE BOSTON GLOBE, COSMOPOLITAN, WIRED, TOR AND MORE
Electrifying and provocative, visceral and profound, a powerful literary debut novel about a young woman whose compulsion to eat earth gives her visions of murdered and missing people'an imaginative synthesis of mystery and magical realism that explores the dark tragedies of ordinary lives.
Set in an unnamed slum in contemporary Argentina, Eartheater is the story of a young woman who finds herself drawn to eating the earth'a compulsion that gives her visions of broken and lost lives. With her first taste of dirt, she learns the horrifying truth of her mother's death. Disturbed by what she witnesses, the woman keeps her visions to herself. But when Eartheater begins an unlikely relationship with a withdrawn police officer, word of her ability begins to spread, and soon desperate members of her community beg for her help, anxious to uncover the truth about their own loved ones.
Surreal and haunting, spare yet complex, Eartheater is a dark, emotionally resonant tale told from a feminist perspective that brilliantly explores the stories of those left behind'the women enduring the pain of uncertainty, whose lives have been shaped by violence and loss.
Translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches
- (
HARPERCOLL)
NAMED A "FALL 2020 MUST-READ" AND ONE OF THE "BEST BOOKS OF FALL 2020" BY TIME, VULTURE, THE BOSTON GLOBE, COSMOPOLITAN, WIRED, TOR AND MORE
Electrifying and provocative, visceral and profound, a powerful literary debut novel about a young woman whose compulsion to eat earth gives her visions of murdered and missing people—an imaginative synthesis of mystery and magical realism that explores the dark tragedies of ordinary lives.
Set in an unnamed slum in contemporary Argentina, Eartheater is the story of a young woman who finds herself drawn to eating the earth—a compulsion that gives her visions of broken and lost lives. With her first taste of dirt, she learns the horrifying truth of her mother’s death. Disturbed by what she witnesses, the woman keeps her visions to herself. But when Eartheater begins an unlikely relationship with a withdrawn police officer, word of her ability begins to spread, and soon desperate members of her community beg for her help, anxious to uncover the truth about their own loved ones.
Surreal and haunting, spare yet complex, Eartheater is a dark, emotionally resonant tale told from a feminist perspective that brilliantly explores the stories of those left behind—the women enduring the pain of uncertainty, whose lives have been shaped by violence and loss.
Translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches
- (
HARPERCOLL)
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* In the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Eartheater is ostracized by her gift: she sees the fates of the missing when she ingests earth connected to them. First, her aunt flees when Eartheater reveals that her father, who disappeared after killing her mother, is alive. Then, when her teacher, Señorita Ana, disappears, a taste of playground earth leads to her battered body. For years, Eartheater avoids the allure of the earth until she's persuaded by a mother's pain to reveal another killer. This, of course, draws other pleas in the form of bottles of earth deposited at her gate, but Eartheater remains repulsed by the pain they hold until Ezequiel, a young cop, enlists her to find his missing cousin. When the girl is rescued, Eartheater finds purpose in her sight and unlikely love with Ezequiel until a friend's murder reveals Señorita Ana's killer, and Eartheater becomes an instrument of death instead of its herald. A powerful story whose narrator wields brutally honest observations on the intersections of class, poverty, and gender. Reyes' debut is a strong addition to the growing body of Latin American crime fiction in the U.S. market. A stirring genre blend of fantasy and crime fiction that combines graceful prose and magic realism. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
In a violent Argentinian slum, a schoolgirl reckons with the clairvoyant experiences she has while eating earth: vivid visions of missing women and children. When her mother dies, the unnamed narrator develops an unusual compulsion to eat dirt and discovers the truth of her mother's killing, in all its betrayal and brutality. The earth, she finds, bestows her with visions of other peopleâ€"murdered or missing, dead or aliveâ€"an ability that earns her the admonishment of her aunt, who grows crueler as word of the girl's abilities spreads. When a young teacher disappears, the narrator eats earth from the schoolyard for answers, which are revealed in a drawing she makes depicting the teacher’s naked body, tied to posts outside a warehouse. The body is discovered in the precise location of the drawing, and, fed up with the humiliation her niece has brought upon their family, the aunt leaves the girl and her older brother, Walter, to raise themselves. As she tries to live with some semblance of normalityâ€"dropping out of school, playing video games and drinking beer with Walter and his friends, experiencing first loveâ€"the young woman struggles with her earth-eating habit, craving it yet repelled by what it shows her. Out of need, though, she accepts money from people whose loved ones have gone missing, including a stoic and aloof police officer, in whom she unexpectedly finds an ally and romantic companion. In a voice that is terse, blunt, and biting, the narrator reckons with the impact of her visions on her health and relationships, as she witnesses more and more the ways fear and violence shape the experiences of the women in her community. Compelling and visceral, Reyes’ debut combines mystery and coming-of-age to evoke the stories of the victims of femicide. Copyright Kirkus 2020 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
A high school dropout reluctantly uses her clairvoyant power to find missing women and children in Argentinian writer Reyes's lurid debut. The unnamed narrator develops a habit of eating dirt in the wake of her mother's violent death, earning her the name Eartheater and shame for her family, especially the aunt now raising her and her older brother, Walter. When a beloved teacher goes missing, the young teenage narrator eats the dirt from the school's courtyard and draws an explicit picture of the teacher's body outside of a nightclub, which gets her sent to the principal. After the teacher's body is discovered where the narrator drew her, the aunt leaves the siblings to fend for themselves, and the narrator drops out of school while Walter supports them both by working as a mechanic. The narrator prefers to drink beer and play video games with Walter and his friends from their unnamed barrio, and occasionally accepts cash for her visions from family members of missing people. Reyes crafts an alluring, unsettling edge to the plot developments, including the narrator's first sexual experiences and the city's pervasive violence, by collapsing the narrator's age and the passage of time, preserving aspects of her young girlhood and her angst-ridden teenage years as she grows older. Reyes's coming-of-age portrait stands out for her unflinching look at a teen's exploration of sex and death. (Nov.)
Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly.