Cross-Stitch - by Jazmina Barrera (Paperback)

About the Book

"The story of three childhood friends-Mila, Citali, and Dalia-over the course of their friendship and into adulthood, fused with the cultural history of sewing"--

Book Synopsis

A debut novel of female friendship and coming-of-age from Jazmina Barrera, acclaimed author of Linea Nigra and On Lighthouses, translated by Christina MacSweeney.

It was meant to be the trip of a lifetime. Mila, Citlali, and Dalia, childhood friends now college aged, leave Mexico City for the London of The Clash and the Paris of Courbet. They anticipate the cafés and crushes, but not the early signs that they are each steadily, inevitably changing.

That feels like forever ago. Mila, now a writer and a new mother, has just published a book on needlecraft--an art form so long dismissed as "women's work." But after learning Citlali has drowned, Mila begins to sift through her old scrapbooks, reflecting on their shared youth for the first time as a new wife and mother. What has come of all the nights the three friends spent embroidering together in silence? Did she miss the signs that Citlali needed help?

Review Quotes

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."
--Elizabeth McNeill, 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

"Cross-Stitch is as much a novel that can satisfy the cravings of any devotee of the woman artist's novel as it is a hopeful promise of Barrera's range and of her innovations to come."
--Necessary Fiction

"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

About the Author

Jazmina Barrera was born in Mexico City in 1988. She was a fellow at the Foundation for Mexican Letters and a fellow at Mexico's Fonca's Program for young writers. She has published work in various print and digital media, such as The Paris Review, El Malpensante, Words Without Borders, El País, The New York Times and Electric Literature. She has a Master's Degree in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University, which she completed with the support of a Fulbright grant. She is the author of four books in Spanish: Cuerpo extraño, Cuaderno de faros, Linea nigra, Los nombres, and Punto de cruz. Her books have been published in nine countries and translated to English, Dutch, Italian and French. Her book of essays Cuerpo extraño (Foreign Body) was awarded the Latin American Voices prize by Literal Publishing in 2013. Cuaderno de faros was long listed for the von Rezzori award. On Lighthouses (Two Lines Press, 2020) was chosen for the Indie Next list by Indie Bound. Linea Nigra was a finalist in CANIEM's Book of the year award and the Amazon Primera Novela (First Novel) Award. She is editor and co-founder of Ediciones Antílope. She lives in Mexico City.

Christina MacSweeney has an MA in Literary Translation from the University of East Anglia. Her work has been recognized in a number of important awards. Her translation of Valeria Luiselli's The Story of My Teeth was awarded the 2016 Valle Inclán Translation Prize and also shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award (2017). Her most recent translations include fiction and nonfiction works by Daniel Saldaña París, Elvira Navarro, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Julián Herbert, Jazmina Barrera, and Karla Suárez. She has also contributed to anthologies of Latin American literature and published translations, articles and interviews on a variety of platforms.