In Cross-Stitch, the inventive first novel by Mexican author Jazmina Barrera (On Lighthouses), a sudden death provokes an intricate examination of three young women's years of shifting friendship. Their shared hobby of embroidery occasions a history of women's handiwork, woven into a relationship study that may remind readers of works by Elena Ferrante and Deborah Levy.
Mila, a Mexico City writer with a young daughter, is blindsided by the news that her friend Citlali has drowned in Senegal. Citlali, who worked for an environmental NGO, struggled with mental illness. New antidepressants slowed her reaction times when she went swimming, so whether her death was accidental or a suicide is unclear.
Mila, Citlali, and Dalia had been best friends since middle school. While waiting to be reunited with Dalia for Citlali's memorial service, Mila browses a journal she kept during their travels in Europe and to a Mexican village to remember key moments from their friendship. They all volunteered one summer in high school, for an adult literacy campaign in Yospí. Later, at age 19, Dalia and Mila visited Citlali, who had moved to France instead of attending college. Before meeting Citlali in Paris, the pair packed in lots of London sightseeing.
Like a scrapbook or commonplace book, the novel--elegantly translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney--pieces together Mila's memories with references to the history of the textile arts. Barrera builds a rich collage of vignettes about art, etymology, and legends that illuminate the womanly traditions of handicraft. A feminist, intertextual gem, Cross-Stitch considers friendship and grief alongside women's work, musing on its serious themes with nimble grace. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck