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Staff Reviews
This book will have you trapped in a sort of surrealist spell right from the start. You don't really know where you are or what's happening but you can't help but be swept away in the captivating storytelling all the way through the end.
— Marisa
January 2025 Indie Next List
“Approached by a tricky stranger, Bonita reluctantly embarks on a haunting and unpredictable stumble through a strange city and through her mother’s past. For fans of Laura van den Berg and Yoko Ogawa, this novella reads like a fever dream.”
— Ellen Woodall, Blacksburg Books, Blacksburg, VA
Description
From "world-class writer" (TheWashington Post) and three-time Booker finalist Anita Desai, an exquisitely written stunning exploration of love, place, memory, history, and the secrets between a mother and her daughter.Away from her home in India to study Spanish, Bonita sits on a bench in El Jardin de San Miguel, Mexico, basking in the park's lush beauty, when she slowly becomes aware that she is being watched. An elderly woman approaches her, claiming that she knew Bonita's mother--that they had been friends when Bonita's mother had lived in Mexico as a talented young artist. Bonita tells the stranger that she must be mistaken; her mother was not a painter and had never travelled to Mexico. Though the stranger leaves, Bonita cannot shake the feeling that she is being followed. Days later, haunted by the encounter, Bonita seeks out the woman, whom she calls The Trickster, and follows her on a tour of what may, or may not, have been her mother's past. As a series of mysterious events brilliantly unfold, Bonita is unable to escape The Trickster's presence, as she is forced to confront questions of truth and identity, and specters of familial and national violence. A masterpiece of storytelling from a gifted writer, Rosarita is a profound mediation on mothers and marriage, art and self-expression, and how the traumas from the past can impact future generations.
“Approached by a tricky stranger, Bonita reluctantly embarks on a haunting and unpredictable stumble through a strange city and through her mother’s past. For fans of Laura van den Berg and Yoko Ogawa, this novella reads like a fever dream.”