Vista Chinesa

Levy (The House in Smyrna) offers a powerful narrative based on her friend’s sexual assault and recovery. In 2014, Júlia is out for a run when she’s held at gunpoint and raped. While Júlia initially sees “forgetting as the only way to move on,” the ensuing police investigation forces her to repeatedly relive the assault—the kind of gloves worn by her attacker, the type of revolver he held, the shape of his nose—making her “wonder every day if I’ve gone or if I’m going mad.” Levy also crafts a moving account of Júlia giving birth to twins two years after the attack, along with a healing trip to Mexico, where Júlia has a sexual reawakening with her husband and the help of masks and drugs. A story line concerning Júlia’s role developing a golf course for the 2016 Olympics seems intended as a metaphor for the government’s destruction of Rio de Janeiro for the games, but the thread is underdeveloped. The author makes vital fiction out of a woman’s attempt to process trauma. (May)