A Note of Fire and Nothing More

Faced with a legacy of maternal violence, a young woman plans a final act to break with the past, but fire and guilt have their own form of justice.

Fernanda carries a legacy of maternal violence that consumes her. Her relationship with her mother has marked every aspect of her life, including her body: She suffers from an eating disorder. Unable to escape the cycles of family resentment and hatred, she decides to take an extreme measure: burn everything and end the female lineage that torments her. To do this, she brings together the women in her family on February 2, Candlemas Day, a religious holiday in Mexico where families gather to share a traditional dinner. However, her mother —the figure that marked her the most— does not come, leaving her trapped between fire and guilt.

This novel is a fierce portrait of motherhood, emotional inheritance and the body as a battlefield. Elena Piedra debuts with a challenging story that illuminates, with flames and words, the scars of family memory.