When an aspiring writer falls under the spell of a mysterious older woman, it sets in motion a precipitous chain of events in Leslie Bazzett's dazzling debut novel, Mia, an erotically charged suspense drama fueled by one woman's "fantasy of belonging." The narrator recounts an earlier period in her life, when she and her family temporarily relocated from their Minnesota home to a charming town in Mexico.
Sally, her architect husband, Tom, and their young children, Ida and Henry, settle into a gorgeous hillside home in San Miguel, where Tom will oversee construction of an "elaborate community aimed at wealthy Mexican and American retirees." Their house comes with a maid, María, who relieves Sally of all domestic duties. Bazzett captures the seductive novelty of being an outsider in a new town and also the insidious side of leisure, how too much of it can leave a person directionless.
Vignettes of Sally's troubled past reveal a girlhood plagued by neglect and sexual abuse. Abandoned by an unreliable mother, she has "a habit of casting around for older women." When drinking coffee with Louise, a strikingly beautiful woman in her 50s whose leg was damaged in a long-ago accident, Sally is secretly thrilled when the waiter mistakes her for Louise's daughter. Her new friend reminds her of "an old greyhound rescued from the races, its body broken but its pedigree intact." Louise, who has an enigmatic past, intuits Sally's creative desires, gifting her a beautiful notebook. And so begins an intimate bond that leads Sally down an exciting yet risky path. She craves Louise's approval even as Louise lays claims on the younger woman that are increasingly absurd.
Bazzett skillfully evokes languid, sun-drenched afternoons in San Miguel that contrast with "colorless, brutally cold" Minneapolis winters. Similarly, Mia's central character, skilled in the art of self-deception and desperate to erase a painful childhood, performs the role of perfect wife and mother until she is seduced into a wilder, freer version of herself. It is titillating for her to conceal from Tom the thrill of reinvention that he, in "his pedantic way," wouldn't understand. Sally spins elaborate lies in the "purifying sunlight" of their home, even as Louise's ambitions for not only Sally, but also Ida, take on sinister proportions.
A mesmerizing novel infused with a sense of foreboding, Mia invites readers to ponder the costs to authenticity when living in denial of the past. --Shahina Piyarali
Shelf Talker: A young wife and mother temporarily living in Mexico falls under the spell of an enigmatic older woman in this mesmerizing, erotically charged suspense drama.