JJ Amaworo Wilson

From 2007 in Caracas, Venezuela, squatters began moving into an unfinished and abandoned tower. Wilson transforms this real-life event into a novel with mythic power in The Damnificados.

Nacho Morales, exposed by a river at birth because of a withered arm and leg, is taken by a poor man and brought up with his other son. Nacho is brilliant with a talent for languages, and studies enough to support himself as a translator.

When his wretched slum is threatened by a Trash War, he leads some of the inhabitants, damnificados, the invisible destitute, into an abandoned 60 floor tower. They move in by the hundreds, steal electricity from the grid, get water through Nacho's powerful contacts for whom he translates, and set up their own businesses (a bakery, a beauty shop,a school) or work in the unnamed South American city. Then the head of the family that built and abandoned the building decides that he wants it back.

The book is peopled by interesting characters, a polyglot bunch who have found a home and manage to live together under Nacho's leadership. Biblical allusions abound: Nacho as Moses, the tower itself, both Babel and the promised land, a flood. Magical realism underlines the feel of mythology; the Agua Suja (Dirty Water river where Nacho was found) turns into something like the Ganges for the Great Cleansing. We have a wolf pack, crocodiles, and a savior in the form of Nacho's brother Emil, who brings food by boat during the flood in time to save the people from starvation.

It's funny. It's surprising. It's profound. I've just talked myself into another half star!… (mais)

Nazaré is the story of Kin, a young, homeless boy, and how he with the help of many others liberated his people from the brutal dictatorship of the Matanza family. It begins one morning on the beach where he discovered a beached whale. With the sailors and townspeople and everyone trying to save the whale, or at least get their picture taken, with no success, Kin stays by the whale, still trying his best until a huge wave comes to wash the whale back into the water. He is accused of sorcery and brought to trial but escapes.

Of course, this is magical realism, so Mayor Matanza has the given names of the most infamous dictators and his last name means massacre. The judge at the trial is an ancient turtle. It’s truly magical realism, not a story with a singular fantastical element.

Kin has to flee and his travels and the people he meets prepare him for the future and build a coalition that will help bring down the dictator, though there is more to the story.

Of course, magic is everywhere.

I loved Nazaré from the first to the last page. I even called up a friend to read a passage because it delighted me so. She’s reading it now. The prose is full of life and humor. And magic, of course. There is so much magic.

I received an ARC of Nazaré from the publisher

Nazaré at PM Press
J.J. Amaworo Wilson author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/9781629639086/… (mais)