Mama and the Hungry Hole

DeBiase’s exquisitely crafted debut novella straddles a line between magical realism and metaphorical truth in a story that explores ties among three generations of women, the persistence of innocence even in the most desperate of childhoods, and the transformative power of stories and dreams. Mama Elise, hoping to escape her feelings of profound sadness, brings her young daughter, Julia, to a sparse rural environment. Julia, feeling isolated, befriends a tree who has watched the changes on the land as generations of humans come and go. Julia also accepts other connections that her mother refuses: a friendship with Juanita, a neighbor who cooks calabacitas and talks to Julia about Jesus despite Elise’s angry protestations, and the love of Nana, Elise’s mother, who’s come to recover her lost daughter and normalize her granddaughter’s life despite her own griefs. DeBiase’s storytelling, both in the overall narrative and in the actual tales her characters tell, deftly excavates the beauty in brokenness and the strange sweetness in sorrow. (June)