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The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir



by
Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Edition
Hardcover edition
Publisher
Penguin Random House
Imprint
Doubleday (Adult)
ISBN
9780385546669
POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
Crime: Drug Trafficking/Dealing , Crime: Gang/Organized Crime , Language: Infrequent Use , Language: Strong Language , Sexual Content: Mild Sexual Content/Themes , Social Issue: Abortion , Violence: Domestic/Physical Abuse , Violence: Sexual Assault/Rape Reference/Discussion
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From the author of the critically acclaimed novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree, comes a dazzling, kaleidoscopic memoir reclaiming her family's otherworldly legacy.

For Ingrid Rojas Contreras, magic runs in the family. Raised amid the political violence of 1980s and '90s Colombia, in a house bustling with her mother’s fortune-telling clients, very little seemed out of the ordinary. Her maternal grandfather, Nono, was a renowned curandero, a community healer gifted with what the family called “the secrets”: the power to talk to the dead, tell the future, treat the sick, and move the clouds. And as the first woman to inherit “the secrets,” Rojas Contreras’ mother was just as powerful. Mami delighted in her ability to appear in two places at once, and she could cast out even the most persistent spirits with nothing more than a glass of water.

But this had always felt like a story that belonged to her mother and grandfather, until, in her twenties, Rojas Contreras’ suffered a head injury that left her with amnesia. As she regained partial memory, her family was excited to tell her that this had happened before: Decades ago Mami had taken a fall that left her with amnesia, too. And when she recovered, she had gained access to “the secrets.”

In 2012, spurred by a shared dream among Mami and her sisters, and her own powerful urge to relearn her family history in the aftermath of her memory loss, Rojas Contreras joins her mother on a journey home to Colombia to disinter Nono’s remains. With Mami as her unpredictable, stubborn, and often hilarious guide, Rojas Contreras traces her lineage back to her Indigenous and Spanish roots, uncovering the violent and rigid colonial narrative that would eventually break her family into two camps: those who believe “the secrets” are a gift, and those who are convinced they are a curse.

Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, resurrected Colombian history, and her own deeply personal reckonings with the bounds of reality, Rojas Contreras writes her way through the incomprehensible and into her inheritance. The result is a luminous testament to the power of storytelling as a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary.

Author’s note. Black-and-white photographs.

POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
Crime: Drug Trafficking/Dealing , Crime: Gang/Organized Crime , Language: Infrequent Use , Language: Strong Language , Sexual Content: Mild Sexual Content/Themes , Social Issue: Abortion , Violence: Domestic/Physical Abuse , Violence: Sexual Assault/Rape Reference/Discussion

Details

Format

Print

Page Count

320

Trim Size

9 1/2" x 6 1/4"

Dewey

B

AR

0: points 0

Genre

Nonfic

Scholastic Reading Counts

0

JLG Release

Sep 2022

Book Genres

Memoir

Topics

Ingrid Rojas Contreras. Family. Travel. Colombia. Hispanic American authors. Colombian Americans. Mothers and daughters. Amnesia patients. Grandfathers. Healers.

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Grades 11 & Up
Adult Crossover High Plus
For Grades 11 & Up
For the more advanced high school reader who is ready for adult reading, our ACH+ Category is a great choice. With more sophisticated and challenging themes, the 14 books in ACH+ open up new worlds for teen readers.
Take note: These selections often contain mature situations and language that could be considered controversial.

14 books per Year
$309.26 per Year
Interests
Fiction,Mature Readers,Novels,Realistic Fiction
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