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Prayers for the Stolen Hardcover – February 11, 2014

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,295 ratings

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A haunting story of love and survival that introduces an unforgettable literary heroine
 
Ladydi Garcia Martínez is fierce, funny and smart. She was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. Here in the shadow of the drug war, bodies turn up on the outskirts of the village to be taken back to the earth by scorpions and snakes. School is held sporadically, when a volunteer can be coerced away from the big city for a semester. In Guerrero the drug lords are kings, and mothers disguise their daughters as sons, or when that fails they “make them ugly” – cropping their hair, blackening their teeth- anything to protect them from the rapacious grasp of the cartels. And when the black SUVs roll through town, Ladydi and her friends burrow into holes in their backyards like animals, tucked safely out of sight.
 
While her mother waits in vain for her husband’s return, Ladydi and her friends dream of a future that holds more promise than mere survival, finding humor, solidarity and fun in the face of so much tragedy. When Ladydi is offered work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, she seizes the chance, and finds her first taste of love with a young caretaker there. But when a local murder tied to the cartel implicates a friend, Ladydi’s future takes a dark turn. Despite the odds against her, this spirited heroine’s resilience and resolve bring hope to otherwise heartbreaking conditions.
 
An illuminating and affecting portrait of women in rural Mexico, and a stunning exploration of the hidden consequences of an unjust war, PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN is an unforgettable story of friendship, family, and determination.
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

On Writing Prayers for the Stolen

In Mexico today women are stolen off the street or taken from their houses at gunpoint. Some women never return home from their work place, a party or from walking to the corner. They are all young and poor and pretty.

I have spent over ten years listening to women affected by Mexico’s violence as I was interested in writing about women in Mexico’s drug culture. This was a logical step for me after having written the novel A True Story Based on Lies, which is about the mistreatment of servants in Mexico. I interviewed the girlfriends, wives and daughters of drug traffickers and quickly came to realize that Mexico is a warren of hidden women. They hide in places that look like supermarkets or grocery stores on the outside, but that are really hiding places with false façades; in the basements of convents, where women live with their children and have not seen daylight for years; and in privately-owned hotels that are rented by the government -- a surreal, Third World concept of a Witness Protection Program.

In rural Mexico, the poorest families dig holes in their cornfields. This is how they hide their women from traffickers. It is as if they planted their daughters in the earth so they would not be stolen.

At Mexico City’s Santa Martha Acatitla Prison for women, I have listened to prisoners who have been deeply touched or have actively participated in the violence that Mexico is experiencing today. My conversations with assassins, drug dealers, women who claim to be innocent, and with famous criminals exposed cruel and tender lives. In that prison of rough, bare cement walls, I looked at drawings of shells, sand and blue fish drawn by a seventy-year-old woman who had sold fish tacos on a beach before she was forced by drug traffickers to carry drugs across the Mexican border into the United States. She told me that she liked to steal the prison’s saltshakers and rub salt on her skin so she would not forget the sea.

After listening to the women in hiding and the women in jail, as well as the women who have been victims of crime, the primary story for me became Mexico’s missing women and children.

For years I had heard or read: she disappeared; she never came back; today she would be celebrating her sixteenth birthday; I am praying for a sign; she went missing; some men came for her; if I go to the police they laugh at me; she was just walking, just walking down the street; she never called back; she never called; I can see her walk through the door; that man knows where my daughter is; he took some other girls; I feel she’s still alive; somebody sent someone for my daughter; someone sent somebody for my daughter.

Although there are no exact statistics, the number of women trafficked in Mexico is very high. According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. (Note this estimate does not include those trafficked within national borders.) Most people who are stolen and sold are subjected to sex trafficking or other forms of modern slavery: forced labor, debt...

A woman can be sold to different owners many times, and even dozens of times a day as a prostitute, while a plastic bag of drugs can be sold once.

Prayers for the Stolen is a novel about Ladydi Garcia Martínez. She is part of a community, like so many in rural Mexico, that has been decimated by drug traffickers, government agricultural policies and illegal immigration. Her home is a village near the once glamorous port of Acapulco. Her story, although inspired by truth, is fiction.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In Clement’s powerful new novel, Ladydi Garcia Martinez tells the story of how she grew up in a remote Mexican mountain village disguised as a boy. This was to ensure that the marauding gangs of drug dealers believed that the village was populated solely by adult women and young boys. No men and absolutely no pretty young girls. It’s a survival strategy that works only marginally well. When it doesn’t work, well, it’s bad. It seems as if these thugs are always lurking, always hovering over villages, always ready to kidnap young, lovely girls. Ironically, it is the lure of this gang life or the flimsy promise of making it in the U.S. that has induced the men of Ladydi’s village to leave. And so her History Channel–educated mother does the best she can with whatever meager means are available to raise and protect her daughter in this tenuous, matriarchal culture. It is her mother’s pliable morality that defines her character and in a paradoxical way arms Ladydi to survive in modern Mexico. Clement’s deft first-person narrative style imbues authenticity to her depiction of a world turned upside down by drug cartels, police corruption, and American exploitation. --Donna Chavez

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hogarth; First Edition (February 11, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0804138788
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0804138789
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.01 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.95 x 0.78 x 8.52 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,295 ratings

About the author

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Jennifer Clement
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Jennifer Clement is President Emerita of the human rights and freedom of expression organization PEN International and the only woman to hold the office of President (2015-2021) since the organization was founded in 1921. Under her leadership, the groundbreaking PEN International Women’s Manifesto and The Democracy of the Imagination Manifesto were created. As President of PEN Mexico (2009-2012), Clement was instrumental in changing the law to make the crime of killing a journalist a federal crime.

Clement is author of the novels A True Story Based on Lies, The Poison That Fascinates, Prayers for the Stolen, Gun Love and Stormy People as well as several poetry books including Poems and Errors, published by Kaunitz-Olsson in Sweden. Clement also wrote the acclaimed memoir Widow Basquiat on New York City in the early 1980’s and the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, which NPR named best book of 2015 in seven different categories. Her memoir The Promised Party will be published in early 2024. Clement’s books have been translated into 38 languages and have covered topics such as the stealing of little girls in Mexico, the effects of gun violence and trafficking of guns into Mexico and Central America as well as writing about her life in the art worlds of Mexico and New York.

Clement is the recipient of Guggenheim, NEA, MacDowell and Santa Maddalena Fellowships and her books have twice been a New York Times Editor’s Choice Book. Prayers for the Stolen was the recipient of the Grand Prix des Lectrices Lyceenes de ELLE(sponsored by ELLE Magazine, the French Ministry of Education and the Maison des écrivains et de la littérature) and a New Statesman Book of the Year, picked by the Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro. Gun Love was an Oprah Book Club Selection as well as being a National Book Award and Aspen Words Literary Prize finalist. Time magazine, among other publications, named it one of the top 10 books of 2018. At NYU she was the commencement speaker for the Gallatin graduates of 2017 and she gave the Lectio Magistralis in Florence, Italy for the Premio Gregor von Rezzori. Clement is a member of Mexico’s prestigious Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte.

For Clement’s work in human rights, she was awarded the HIP Award for contribution to Latino Communities by the Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) Organization as well as being the recipient of the Sara Curry Humanitarian Award. Most recently, she was given the 2023 Freedom of Expression Honorary title on the occasion of World Press Day by Brussels University Alliance VUB and ULB in partnership with the European Commission, European Endowment for Democracy and UNESCO among others. Other laureates include Svetlana Alexievich, Zhang Zhan, Ahmet Altan, Daphne Caruana Galizia and Raif Badawi, among others.

Jennifer Clement was raised in Mexico where she lives. She and her sister Barbara Sibley founded and direct the San Miguel Poetry Week. Clement has a double major in anthropology and English Literature from New York University (Gallatin) and an MFA from University of Southern Maine (Stonecoast). She was named a Distinguished Alumna by the Kingswood Cranbrook School.

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4.3 out of 5 stars
1,295 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the writing descriptive and beautiful. They describe the book as a great, enjoyable read with thought-provoking content about an important subject. Readers praise the characters as rich, resilient, and fierce. The story is described as real, genuine, and honest. Opinions differ on the heartbreaking story, with some finding it gripping and uplifting while others consider it grim and true.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

80 customers mention "Writing quality"70 positive10 negative

Customers enjoy the writing quality of the book. They find the language descriptive and beautiful. The story is told beautifully, with a light touch of magic realism. Readers appreciate the clear depiction of life in Mexico. The sentences never allow readers to veer from the story's focus. Overall, the writing style is described as artfully done and humorous, shocking, sad, and enlightening.

"Prayers for the Stolen is excellent! It is beautifully written and is a heart wrenching expose of one of the most brutal aspects of the rampant and..." Read more

"Well-written. The story and the characters are well defined and visible...." Read more

"...But as usual, a few spoil it for the many. Well-written, totally researched, stunning docu-novel." Read more

"...Artfully done, it's humorous, shocking, sad, and enlightening...." Read more

65 customers mention "Readability"58 positive7 negative

Customers find the book engaging and enjoyable. They describe it as a compelling, riveting read with twists and turns. Readers are captivated from the start and find the story informative. However, some feel the book is just okay.

"Not uplifting at all. Informative. Good coming of age novel. Read "Enrique's Journey" first. Thought provoking. Good writing...." Read more

"...Apart from being a very good read, I sincerely hope that this wonderful book might be another step in the slow process of helping to keep our girls..." Read more

"This is a fantastic novel. The book has been touted as a portrayal of the hardships of the women involved in the sex trade...." Read more

"...Real. Riveting. A worthwhile read." Read more

25 customers mention "Enlightened"21 positive4 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and informative. They say it's well-written about an important subject, fascinating, and uplifting at times. The book offers compelling insights into humanity in a region and provides excellent insight into social conditions in parts of Mexico. Readers mention it's brilliantly researched and a great read.

"...Artfully done, it's humorous, shocking, sad, and enlightening...." Read more

"...Once the characters are established and the story reveals enough information to see the extreme difficulty of life in the small mountain town of..." Read more

"Not uplifting at all. Informative. Good coming of age novel. Read "Enrique's Journey" first. Thought provoking. Good writing...." Read more

"...It was a book club choice and we had a great discussion over the book...." Read more

13 customers mention "Character development"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the characters well-developed and resilient. They describe the story as powerful yet frightening, with strong women trying to protect themselves.

"Well-written. The story and the characters are well defined and visible...." Read more

"...The characters are sympathetic and resilient against all odds...." Read more

"...The characters are rich and developed, and the plot moves along easily, but without feeling rushed...." Read more

"The main character in this novel is so fierce she is to die for and all the women and girls are speaking truth in a way we rarely hear or see...." Read more

7 customers mention "Authenticity"7 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's authenticity. They find it heartbreaking, genuinely told, and honest. The story has elements of magic realism with matter-of-fact language used to depict the horrifying events.

"...Real. Riveting. A worthwhile read." Read more

"A great story and written so wonderfully. So intriguing and genuinely told. A very fast and easy read that I truly enjoyed." Read more

"A lovely engaging novel with elements of magic realism. The content is bleak (narcos, murder, kidnapping, sexual assault) but the execution is poetic." Read more

"Deceptively simple and matter-of-fact language is used to depict the horrid and deadly landscape of rural Mexico corrupted by the drug trade, and..." Read more

62 customers mention "Heartbreaking story"41 positive21 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story. Some find it gripping and easy to read, with a heartbreaking tale of real girls in Guerrero Mexico. Others feel the plot is not uplifting, leaving them feeling sad and angry.

"...It is beautifully written and is a heart wrenching expose of one of the most brutal aspects of the rampant and powerful drug trade in Mexico...." Read more

"...The story and the characters are well defined and visible. Fiction, based in the current day reality of the drug trafficking, disappearing girls,..." Read more

"...But as usual, a few spoil it for the many. Well-written, totally researched, stunning docu-novel." Read more

"...the writing style was a little bit choppy and it was hard to understand what was happening but then it got better as it went on and I didn't want to..." Read more

Heart -Wrenching but Good
5 out of 5 stars
Heart -Wrenching but Good
Every now and then, I read a book that stays with me or a long time, and it takes me a while to move on to another book because I'm still soaking up the story. "Prayers For the Stolen" by Jennifer Clement is one of those. I had the pleasure to read this heart wrenching and life changing novel. I normally do not read much of this genre. It has the tendency to make me sad, but the good part is that it is the kind of book that really makes you think about how fortunate you are to be where you are or grateful for what you have.The main character in this novel, Ladydi, grew up in Mexico in a very poor town. The story covers her youth there with her mother in details and the very sad life they had. Unfortunate events later on happen that result in Ladydi being incarcerated for a crime she did not commit. She happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person.I will not spoil it but the author did such a great shop taking us "the readers" into the world of the main character. From the school, to the prison, I was captivated by the story.The voice and tone of the character are consistent throughout the story. I never heard of this author until I read this book, and I hope to read more of her work now. If you're looking for something different--not your everyday kind of novel, I recommend this book. It will teach you about a part of the world you may not know much about and make you reflect about your life.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2014
    Prayers for the Stolen is excellent! It is beautifully written and is a heart wrenching expose of one of the most brutal aspects of the rampant and powerful drug trade in Mexico. But the book does not take you through a graphic Tarantino tour of the horrors implicit in the story. Instead, Clement manages to focus on the endurance and resilience of the women who face unspeakable abuse and trauma. We can imagine but do not relive the terror. We see the before and after, the anticipation of and the recovering from. The facts are harrowing, but the telling of the story is not.

    The main characters live under the constant threat of violence. They are invisible to the world, living in remote and very poor regions of Mexico where the narco-traffickers rule. The setting is Mad Max desolate, terrifying and hopeless. But the drama is not loud. It does not harangue. It is muted and the language and voices are of the land, rustic, raw and unadorned.

    The novel gets inside the "collateral damage" space of global social and political upheaval. The victims live in NAFTA's wake, abandoned mostly by men gone off to the US to work, but who, in the "va y ven" of it all, end up never coming back. They live in the dusty shoulders of the Meso American narco- highway. Young women are randomly killed, maimed or "stolen" from their homes when the speeding SUVs veer off their beaten path so the traffickers can go foraging for pretty girls. The girls are not "kidnapped" in the traditional sense, as there is no ransom to be had. They are abducted or "stolen" for the purpose being sold into prostitution or used as personal pleasure toys.

    As always, Jennifer Clement has written the reader into a very quiet and internal place. Seated at the hearth or at the table we are immersed in a contemporary update of the quotidian details of an ancient culture. Lady Diana worship, Rap and Hip Hop and cell phones are as central to life as the Virgin de Guadalupe,scorpions, chiles and tortillas.

    Prayers for the Stolen is an intimate look at poverty and human trafficking in Mexico from the inside out. But it also draws the global context that connects us from the outside in. This novel does not allow us to escape from our relationship to or our responsibility in the story.
    Bravo!
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2022
    Well-written. The story and the characters are well defined and visible. Fiction, based in the current day reality of the drug trafficking, disappearing girls, and the subtle ways that the U.S. contributes to the ongoing crisis. The ending is a little weak. If not for that, i would have given it a five star.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2021
    This book was our book club’s choice. We have yet to meet to discuss, however, the early comments by members is that thoroughly enjoyed it. For me, it was a tough read subject-wise. It’s hard to imagine how cruel just existing in this world it can be. Even more so if you know at any moment your carefully built world crashes down on you and what guts it takes to survive. It truly disturbs me the plight of the young girls stolen by men whether in the Mexican drug cartels or other powerful groups who think they own whomever they see or want.
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2015
    At first the writing style was a little bit choppy and it was hard to understand what was happening but then it got better as it went on and I didn't want to put it down. The story line overall wasn't an easy one to take in considering that such things actually still happen today. But being told from a teenagers perspective made it more interesting for me because doing so made it that much more interesting; although that much more sadder as well considering that is no lifestyle for any woman, never mind to such young girls.
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2014
    The author writes so we can see and hear so vividly what these children and families have had to go through. I was absolutely ignorant about such things. I love the Mexican people and their graciousness. But as usual, a few spoil it for the many. Well-written, totally researched, stunning docu-novel.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2018
    Well researched "historical" fiction, except it's not historical in that it's happening today. A cording to the author, it's a conglomeration of many women's and girl's actual stories put into one small village's fictional story. Artfully done, it's humorous, shocking, sad, and enlightening. Being an annual visitor to Mexico and loving that country and its hard working people, it has made me aware of a situation of which I was totally ignorant. I am changed and in future visits will be looking to be an advocate for such women and girls. That's some powerful fiction, indeed. I would say on the scale with Dickens or Steinbeck, not in the writing style or prose, but, this kind of fiction can drive change.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Charlene McDonald
    5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend.
    Reviewed in Mexico on December 14, 2019
    Fantastic book. I live in Mexico now and this story rings true. Shocking. Moving. Frightening. One of those books that sticks with you and you keep thinking about long after you put it down. Highly recommend.
  • Xti H.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Lecturas del curso.
    Reviewed in Spain on April 29, 2019
    Libro difícil de encontrar, en según qué versión.
    Sus páginas tienen un buen tacto y su portada colorida, llama la atención. Me lo han pedido para una clase de inglés( así que no comento el texto)
    El tamaño de la letra está muy bien, para poder leer, sin esfuerzo.
    Customer image
    Xti H.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Lecturas del curso.
    Reviewed in Spain on April 29, 2019
    Libro difícil de encontrar, en según qué versión.
    Sus páginas tienen un buen tacto y su portada colorida, llama la atención. Me lo han pedido para una clase de inglés( así que no comento el texto)
    El tamaño de la letra está muy bien, para poder leer, sin esfuerzo.
    Images in this review
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    Customer imageCustomer image
  • Lost Pochard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 1, 2018
    If, like me, you have been feeling disappointed with the quality of contemporary literary fiction, then read this book. It is a powerful and important story, movingly and humorously narrated by a poor Mexican girl. Her life in rural Guerrero is perfectly captured, the pure simplicity of Clement's prose breathtaking. One of the best fiction works I have read in decades.
  • Sonyasparkles
    5.0 out of 5 stars Stolen
    Reviewed in Australia on July 17, 2019
    Where has humanity gone wrong...Prayers for the Stolen , Memory Stones about the ‘disappeared’ in Argentina.... whilst it’s fiction, it’s not far from the horrible truth.
  • Darlene Jones
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
    Reviewed in Canada on November 14, 2014
    How Jennifer managed to capture the essence of life for the poor in Mexico is to be admired. I've spent enough time in Mexico--not as a tourist--to know that her portrayal is spot on. A beautifully written and heart wrenching story. You'll finish it and immediately want to read it again. I'