Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we are now in the C’s!!!
Country: Cape Verde
Title: The Mad Woman of Serrano
Author: t
Language: Portuguese
Translator: Jethro Soutar
Publisher: Spleen Ediçũes (1998), English translation Dedalus (2019)
The Mad Woman of Serrano was the first novel by a female author to be published in Cape Verde, and the first to be translated into English. It’s a magical realism novel about Serrano, a rural village set apart from the city, and what happens when the village is thrust into the world. When the village is “discovered” and the men forced to join the military as required by all citizens, their way of life changes because their dreams change. Perhaps the biggest change comes from a plane crash with a sole survivor who winds up in the village, pregnant and confused. The novel primarily follows her daughter, Filipa, who is raised in Serrano, but eventually taken from her home. In the city, she attempts to come to terms with her identity and decisions made by her mother’s prominent family, while struggling with the memories of her childhood, her adopted father, and her only friend – the village’s madwoman.
The history of Serrano and the stories about the folks who called it home are my favorite. The lore of the midwives, the women who birth every child of the village (except for Filipa, which is part of the problem) and who take the virginity of every boy years later, is a well developed thread. It can get a little confusing, likely due to the translation and the magical realism aspects, but it’s well worth the journey.
A Girl Named Tommi 