This simple novel contains powerful imagery as Eber paints the landscape of Chiapas and the plights of its people. This story will transport readers and break their hearts as they learn Lucia's fate and Magdalena's struggle to live. VERDICT This is a wonderfully written coming-of-age novel with a great balance of anecdotes about the Chiapas culture and a central driving narrative about tragedy and the lives of women bound by culture and expectations.–Katie Llera, Brunner Elementary School, Scotch Plains, NJ,
School Library Journal The book's originality, and its boldness, makes it impossible to turn away. Ambitious and demanding; one of a kind.
Kirkus Reviews When a Woman Rises is set in the Maya township of Chenalhó, Chiapas, a place Christine depicts beautifully and with clear understanding...As Magdalena tells the story of Lucia, their friendship and their struggles, a larger narrative unfolds gradually revealing the complex lives and culture of Chiapas. Through the voice of Magdalena, we hear about the community's painful history, the rise of the Zapatistas, alcoholism, the fusion of Maya beliefs with Catholicism, and so much more.–Karen Brock,
Thrum's Books Weaving together the voices of Lucia and Magdalena, two Maya women friends, Christine Eber, like the backstrap-loom weavers in the novel, exquisitely crafts a complex and compassionate picture of the lives of Maya people in the highland of Chiapas. Readers will be moved by the daunting challenges these women face and the dramatic twists and turns their stories take. Magdalena chooses a traditional path; Lucia, a frightening, uncharted one. All along, the struggle to survive while remaining faithful to their ancestors' teachings hovers in the background. –Brenda Rosenbaum,
World Literature Today
