Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Alice Ribeiro is constantly fighting―against the status quo, female oppression in Brazil, and even her own mother. But when a family veil is passed down to her, and she discovers it hides a secret coded tale of domestic violence that happened 100 years before, she is compelled to uncover the hidden history of the women in her family while also fighting for the rights of all womankind.

Seven generations ago, the small town of Bom Retiro shunned the Flores women because of a “curse” that rendered them unlucky in love. With no men on the horizon to take care of them, the women learned the art of lacemaking to build lives of their own. But their peace was soon threatened by forces beyond any woman’s control.

As Alice begins piecing together the tapestry that is her history, she discovers revelations about the past, connections to the present, and a resilience in her blood that will carry her toward the future her ancestors strove for.

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Excerpt

From the opening pages of THE CURSE OF THE FLORES WOMEN:

It was always an act of rebellion, albeit invisible.

We knew there was a risk in what we were doing, and perhaps it was precisely the danger of being found out—small at first, barely evident to anyone’s eyes, intertwined with the threads of patterns we flaunted so discreetly on our lace handkerchiefs and veils—that emboldened us to take even greater risks.

We weren’t all related, but we were united by the art of transforming thread and woven tape into lace. Here, on this patch of land where minor details matter more than big events, where the red clay ground is as cracked and lined as my Tia Firmina’s face—both sculpted by time and sorrow—where the fate of women is cut-and-dried, like the imperfect reverse side of the only story woven exclusively by our own desire and determination: lace. No other path wholly belonged to us.

Review

I loved this story, which blends the past and the present (or more recent past) and explores the struggles that women have faced all of their lives, especially in the early 1900s.

Women were not treated well in this small town, and the same could be said for nearly any place in the world. Men controlled everything and did not give women credit for their talents, intellect, and skills. However, this small band of lacemakers sought to change that. The story primarily follows Ines and Eugenia and the friendship between the two, with the desire to help each other escape a bad situation. Eugenia was ingenious to create a code that she stitched into the lace that told her story. I can’t imagine how long it took to make the message with the varying stitches. It shows their dedication to doing their best in this world despite their circumstances.

Ines has only her family to support her, and while I like her mother and sister, her aunt is another story. Tia Firmina was righteous and thought that she knew everything. She sticks her nose into things that she presumes and creates havoc. However, each book needs to have a character or two who are disliked for multiple reasons.

Eugenia is married off to a local Colonel because her parents believe he will take care of her. This may be true, but when someone like her has been spoiled to do what she wants, marriage to a man who wants to control her is not in her best interest. Her story is sad, and I felt sorry for her situation.

Vitorina is a major character, but she does not become integral to the story until much later. She is trying to avoid the situation with her mother and potentially having to be a companion for her whole life. I chuckled at her attempts to engage the local school teacher in conversation and more. She has her eyes set on him, and he better watch out.

The present-day character is Alice. She is 18 and not sure what she wants from life. Her adventure to discover the truth about a veil she inherits opens doors with her mother, which improves their relationship.

There is so much to enjoy about this book. I loved learning about lace making, how women dealt with forging their own path, and how their wants and desires are no different from what we want today in this life. When translated, a book can be hit or miss in how well it is translated into English. As I immersed myself in this book, it felt like I was reading a book written in English, and I did not notice any hiccups with words or phrases.

The book is shorter, only 230 pages or so, but I felt like it could have been much longer. There are many unanswered questions, and we are left to speculate how the stories of certain characters ended. Despite that, there is some resolution as we learn what Alice discovers in her research into her family’s history. The book’s primary focus is the past, and I would have liked there to be more in the present with Alice, her mother, and her aunt.

I still loved the book and highly recommend it. We give it 5 paws up.

About the Author & Translator

Angélica Lopes is a novelist, screenwriter, and journalist from Rio de Janeiro with over twenty years of experience in writing fiction. Her dramatic vein came from writing Brazilian soap operas, known worldwide for attracting millions of viewers daily. She is also an award-winning author of YA novels and has written scripts for cinema, TV series, and comedy shows. The Curse of the Flores Women is her first adult novel and was sold for translation in France and Italy even before being published in her native Brazil.

Zoë Perry has translated the work of several contemporary Brazilian authors, including Emilio Fraia, Ana Paula Maia, Juliana Leite, Clara Drummond, Veronica Stigger, and Carol Bensimon. Her translations have appeared in the Paris Review, the New Yorker, Granta, Astra, n+1, and the New York Times. Perry’s translation of Ana Paula Maia’s Of Cattle and Men was awarded an English PEN grant, and she received a PEN/Heim grant for her translation of Veronica Stigger’s Opisanie swiata (Desription of the World). She is currently based in Miami.

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