Synopsis

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.

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Praise

Bookbub: listed among 10 best historical fiction books of 2024

“A deep dive into 16th century Spain and Mexico, during the dangerous times of the Spanish Inquisition, superbly crafted by an experienced historical novelist. A must read.”-Pam Royl, author of The Last Secret

“Rummel’s whole novel is marvellous, full of wisdom, learning, and insight.”-Jonathan Locke Hart, historian, literary scholar, and poet

“a captivating and meticulously researched historical novel that offers a vivid and compelling portrayal of the life of Luisa Abrego, an emancipated woman who forges a new future for herself in colonial Mexico. an intriguing subject and narrative approach, making it a literary masterpiece that deserves to be cherished and experienced. Rummel’s storytelling is both enchanting and thought-provoking, as she weaves a complex and fascinating tale of Luisa’s life, from her emancipation in Seville to her journey to colonial Mexico. The author’s attention to historical detail and her carefully researched imagining of Luisa’s life bring the sixteenth-century setting to life, offering readers a rich and immersive reading experience.”-Trishita Das, GluedToBook 

Excerpt

A silver mine in Zacatecas, 1575

They say when you are close to death, the whole of your life passes before your eyes. It’s an act of God giving you a last chance to repent of your sins. That didn’t happen to me on the day the mine collapsed and buried me under the rubble of stone and ore. I thought of nothing. My brain seized up like a rusty wheel the moment I felt the earth shaking and heard the cracking of the beams. The lantern which I had hooked up, fell to the ground, and the candle inside hissed and died. For a moment I glimpsed the light of day at the entrance of the mine, the last rays of the slanting sun. Then it too was gone, as if a giant hand had shut a door. Nor did I think of my sins when I felt the lacerating cut of a rock smash into my shoulder, when the weight of the collapsing walls brought me to my knees, and my fingers scraped the rough ground. My mind gave out, like the candle wick.

I don’t know how much time had passed in that blind darkness, when I woke to a fierce stabbing pain in my shoulder and left arm, a deep ache in my bones. My throat was dry, but I had nothing to quench my thirst or still my hunger pangs. I raised my head, thumped against wood and sank back again. I couldn’t shift my body or straighten my legs, but was able to move my right hand to explore my surroundings. I felt a wooden barrier mere inches away and realized that a toppled beam was hemming me in, running along the whole length of my body. It had pinned me down, but also protected me from the falling rocks and was forming a hollow space around me that allowed me to breathe. I had been working close to the mouth of the mine when the shaft collapsed, and the fact that I was now surrounded by darkness told me that the way out was blocked. Not even a ray of light could penetrate to the spot where I lay. I was shut up in the mine as in a tomb. The silence surrounding me was complete, except for the ghostly rumbling of shifting rocks somewhere in the depth of the mine and gravel raining down on the beam above me. After what seemed like many hours, I heard more rumbling and saw a glimmer of light. A new rockslide had opened a gap no wider than my hand. However close I was to the surface, it did not help me because I was trapped by the beam and could not move even an inch toward the source of light. At least I will not die a wretched death of suffocation, I thought. That tiny gap assured me a fresh supply of air.

Then it occurred to me to call out in case Cholu, my helper, could hear me. It was my hope that only the front section of the mine had collapsed and that Cholu was safe on the far side, but there was no answer to my call and no sound reached my ear except the ominous cracking of the shifting rock.  The disaster had struck at the end of our workday, when he was picking up his pepena, as he called the bag of ore I allowed him to collect in addition to his pay, as a reward for good work. I myself had been at the front end of the mine, near the entrance, emptying the buckets of groundwater we brought up from the bottom with a system of rigged chains and whims. When the ground beneath me began to rock and the walls gave way, the pail of water I had lifted off the chain tipped over and spilled, drenching my shirt. Now, with an infinite effort, I maneuvered my hand up to my chest so that I could gather the folds of my shirt and bring them to my parched lips. I sucked at the fabric, but the liquid was barely enough to wet my lips and tongue. Time had passed, while I lay unconscious, how much time I could not tell, perhaps a whole night, perhaps another day. Although the mine was cold and dank, my shirt was no longer sopping wet. It was merely moist to the touch. I tore off a bit of the fabric with my teeth and chewed it and, after sucking out as much liquid as it would yield, swallowed the mash. The fibre, I hoped, would calm my growling stomach even if it provided no nourishment. How long would it take for anyone to miss the two of us? There was no one waiting for me at the house, and Chulo was a single lad. His family lived on a hacienda at the edge of town. He slept at my house during the week and visited them only on Sundays. They would not miss him for days. And Luisa, my poor wife, was far away in Mexico City, but her name sustained me in the darkness, and I realized that I had been wrong all these years when I thought love was a meaningless word, no more than romantic nonsense. There was no love between men and women, I thought, only self-interest or lust or at best, companionship. But the memory of Luisa’s sweet voice settled on me like balm, and I realized that love did exist and had bound me to her all along.

Guest Review by Nora

“Her image sustained me in the darkness, and I realized that I had been wrong all these years when I thought love was a meaningless word, no more than romantic nonsense. I didn’t believe that there was true love between men and women. There was only self-interest or lust or, at best, companionship. But the memory of Luisa’s sweet voice settled on me like balm, and I realized that love did exist and had bound me to her all along.”

A truly unique reading experience! Erika Rummel’s new historical fiction novel, ‘What They Said About Luisa,’ is probably going to be your most memorable reading experience of the year. It certainly was for myself!

Told from a different perspective in every chapter, the novel focuses on the life of a former slave named Luisa, who travels thousands of miles to find a new life for herself but ends up finding more trouble than she could have ever imagined.

During the time of the Spanish Inquisition, many people were tried for crimes that they did not commit. And sometimes, those people even turned themselves in. Such was the case with Luisa, a former slave who left Spain to travel to Mexico with her new husband, unaware that she was unknowingly committing bigamy.

Having promised her hand in marriage to another man, Luisa did not realize that she was technically married in the eyes of the Catholic church. When she does realize this, she confesses to her priest only to be turned over to the Inquisition to be tried for her crime.

This is a stellar novel, and I highly recommend it for lovers of historical fiction.

All of Erika Rummel’s books that I have read so far have been excellent, and I cannot wait to see what she comes out with next! Five stars for this great read!

About the Author

Award-winning author, Erika Rummel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books and seven novels. Her seventh novel, ‘Evita and Me’ is being published on May 24, 2022.

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’s 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 Ph.D. 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.

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Giveaway

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