The Man Who Could Move Clouds

I was immediately drawn to a fellow Latina's story by virtue of being of Colombian ancestry and experiencing similar mystical and unusual experiences in my family. I have relatives in Colombia who lived through the political violence of the 1980s, and I could understand the dread she described in her book.

The reckoning between a concrete reality and a magical world was part of my writing challenge. I felt as if I had found a kindred spirit who shared a heritage of magic and mystery and the Latina approach to integrating this into our lives unapologetically.

I love magical realism, and I would say that this book is filled with it, but the author makes the point that what some people call magical realism is just realism for her family.

She delves into colonization and trauma and how conquerors try to impose their ways of thinking on the conquered. Yet, a lineage of healers who didn’t adopt those viewpoints has persisted in the author’s family and culture.

The characters in this story are richly rendered, at times funny, and more compelling than any fictional characters I’ve come across recently. It’s one of those rare books that… show more.