María Cristina Fernández’s new novel En el nombre de la rusa [In the Name of the Russian Woman] was published by Bokeh this year (2025).
Extract: Don’t leave me without music; I remember asking for it when I felt an unusual warmth rise from my feet to my head. I don’t remember the order in which we took communion, but I do remember that we all took our portion.
“Open that door,” Svetlana asked. “I want to see the sun.”
The next thing I remember is seeing Andrea lying in the shallow end of the pool, her long skirt opening like a flower in the water, dancing while the recorded music declared: We are the children of the sun… Life and death are the same dance, I told myself as I tried to look at the sun playing among the branches in the courtyard. I could live without books, I told myself, but I can’t live without this light.
En el nombre de la rusa. Gainesville: Bokeh [ISBN 978-1-966932-06-2 160 pp.]
María Cristina Fernández (Santiago de Cuba, 1970) has published several novels, including No nací en Castalia (2016) and P (2020), which won the Silver Medal from the Florida Book Awards. Earlier titles are Procesión lejos de Bretaña (2000) and El maestro en el cuerpo (Miami 2008). Her poetry collections include Miracle Mile (2021) and Mandorla (2023). She published a volume of stories for children, El cielo de los deseos, which won the April Prize in 2020, and a children’s novel, Cachete y la Tropa del Don (2001).
For more information, see https://www.amazon.com/En-el-nombre-rusa-Spanish/dp/1966932065 and https://almenarapress.com/shop/bokeh/fernandez-maria-cristina-en-el-nombre-de-la-rusa/
María Cristina Fernández’s new novel En el nombre de la rusa [In the Name of the Russian Woman] was published by Bokeh this year (2025). Extract: Don’t leave me without music; I remember asking for it when I felt an unusual warmth rise from my feet to my head. I don’t remember the order in