One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2023 (The Millions)
One of the Best Books of the 2023 So Far (Chicago Review of Books)
"Needlework is often depicted as a peaceful activity: feminine, unthreatening, decorative. Yet in Jazmina Barrera's understated and lovely debut novel, Cross-Stitch, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, embroidery is revealed to be as quietly brutal as young womanhood, despite the shroud of innocence society often places over both." –The New York Times
"Reflections on youth, the passage of time, and the meaning of female friendship....[Jazmina Barrera] blend[s] Sally Rooney-esque interpersonal chaos with a clean, graceful prose style." –Vogue
"Stitches, secrets, shame: When Jazmina Barrera's first novel translated into English, Cross-Stitch, hits shelves in November, read it. Barrera stitches a female coming-of-age story together with a feminist history and theory of embroidery, and it consumed my entire day." –Chicago Review of Books
"A quilt of language–distinct fragments stitched together to form a multiplicitous whole–that juxtaposes teenage memories, adult grief, and researched explorations of sewing and embroidery...Everything there is to admire in Barrera's essays can be found, slightly transformed, in this first novel." –Full Stop
"Throughout Cross-Stitch, Barrera weaves, braids and composes the story of the trio's friendship into a plot so convincing and emotionally intelligent that readers may mistake it for a memoir, while seamlessly incorporating intriguing tidbits about the history of embroidery...Barrera's prose is insightful and precise, and MacSweeney's translation conveys a natural, conversational rhythm." –BookPage
"A feminist, intertextual gem reminiscent of Still Born and A Ghost in the Throat, Cross-Stitch considers friendship and grief alongside women's work, musing on its serious themes with nimble grace." –Shelf Awareness
"The multi-talented Barrera, author of the memoir Linea Nigra (2022), turns to fiction in this introspective translation from the original Spanish... Lovers of language and subtle character development will be enthralled."–Booklist
"The novel evokes the awkward process of growing up, chronicling adolescence and the transition into adulthood vividly and frankly...a somber book about the formative, irreplicable experiences shared between friends and the agony and bewilderment of loss." –Kirkus Reviews
"Jazmina Barrera's Cross-Stitch is a beautifully woven tale of friendship, coming of age, womanhood, and loss that never shies away from the complexity of grief–all while honoring the joy that is to be found in life. Masterfully written, and with a fascinating history of the art of needlework stitched throughout, here is a delicate novel in which embroidery becomes a breathtaking language unto itself. Christina MacSweeney perfectly captures Jazmina Barrera's poetic voice in this incredibly precise and moving translation." –Isaac Fitzgerald, author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts
"Jazmina Barrera has written an astonishing book, one that illuminates the mysterious, intricate, and eternal nature of female friendship. Through prose that never fails to find the profound in the particular, Barrera's Cross-Stitch takes readers on a journey through the little private universes people make through relation to one another." –Chloé Cooper Jones, author of Easy Beauty
"Barrera embroiders a tender story of friendship and loss, intricately weaving the complexities of womanhood, self-discovery, and the human experiences that bind us." –Reyna Grande, author of A Ballad of Love and Glory
"Never has a novel about friendship rung truer to me than this one. This is literary art at its most insightful, most tender, most wise. Cross-Stitch is a soft-spoken, hyper-articulate masterpiece. " –John Wray, author of Gone to the Wolves
