flesh to bone

flesh to bone opens with a story called “hunger.” The story features a family of three: a daughter who can taste words and see their flowing colors, a son who dreams of hunger but rarely eats, and a mother who worries about her strange children. Their problems come to head when the children start spending time with a hungry ghost who lingers near their house. The following stories share similar elements: mysterious problems with magical solutions, all-consuming worry, heart-rending sadness, stories written upon the flesh. Often the characters are searching; they search for a loved-one or relief from pain or a way to assuage their terrible longing. silva infuses her prose with the lilting cadence of song. Interspersed with Spanish words, the stories flow over the reader’s tongue and embed themselves in the subconscious. My favorite image in the book occurs in the story “duérmete.” Teré, a home health nurse, keeps herself busy in order to forget her past. This works during the day, but she struggles to sleep at night. Eventually Teré dreams of a patient’s death. She scrubs the deceased’s bones and finds the story of the woman’s life inscribed on their surfaces. silva’s writing is filled with similar images, beautiful and painful and extremely imaginative.