Ten Women

By: Marcela Serrano, Beth Fowler - translator

Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez

"Listening to stories gives you many lives, telling them dims loneliness." (Marcela Serrano)

Nine Chilean women from vastly different backgrounds have been brought together by their beloved therapist, Natasha, to talk about their lives and help each other heal. From a teenage computer whiz confronting her sexual identity, to a middle-aged recluse who prefers the company of her dog over that of most humans, the women don’t have much in common on the surface. And yet as they tell their stories, unlikely common threads are discovered, bonds are formed, and lives are transformed. The women represent the many cultural, racial, and social groups that modern Chile is composed of - from housekeeper to celebrity television personality - and together their stories form a pastiche that is at times achingly sad, and at other times funny and inspiring. This is an intricately woven, beautifully rendered tale of the universal bonds between women from one of Latin America’s most celebrated novelists.

©2011 Marcela Serrano (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. English translation © 2014 by Beth Fowler. Epigraph from “Here” by Wisława Szymborska translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh, published in the collection Here, reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Outstanding characterization

I loved everything about this book. Especially the deep profound characters. Women who by another author would have been reduced to pathetic victims, are given nobility in their personal stories.

Poignant, Thoughtful and Moving!

Ten Women
Marcela Serrano

A poignant, thoughtful, and moving look deep into the lives of nine women and the woman that brought them to this healing point in their lives.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


SUMMARY
Nine Chilean women from different walks of life are brought together by their beloved therapist, Natasha, to share their stories with each other. From a teenage girl confronting her sexual identity to a middle-aged recluse, these women have nothing in common. The women represent many cultural, racial, and social groups that comprised modern Chile. From housekeeper to celebrity television personality, together their stories form a collage that is at times achingly sad, and at other times funny and inspiring. As the women tell their stories many unlikely common threads are discovered and bonds are formed. Their separate stories form an intricately woven tale of triumph, heartache and healing that will resonate with women everywhere.

“How these women move me. How they sadden me. Why did half of humanity take on such a great burden and leave the other half to rest?”


REVIEW
What a interesting work of fiction or meta-fiction! By having each woman tell her own story you are drawn into the book and it feels so real. I would not have been surprised if you told me this was a work of non-fiction. The first story is Francisca’s who is forty two, successful in real estate development, but not so much with life in general or in her relationship with her mother. She tells us she hates her mother and she been in therapy with Natasha the longest. Then we hear Mané’s story, who is seventy-five the oldest of the women, and says she used to be gorgeous, and her story is about her personal shame of aging. She says the movie Sunset Boulevard is like the story of her life. There are also the stories of a women who was raped by soldiers on a trip to Israel, and a popular television reporter who is not sure who she is and cannot sleep without medication. The voice of each woman is strong and moving, despite telling a painful or horrific story.

Gripping and evocative, the women’s stories will haunt you well after the the last page is turned. It’s a beautifully written work that should have wide appeal with all women of a certain age. The part I like most was the diversity of the women included in the story. My least favorite part of the book was having Natasha’s story, which is rightfully told last, be told by her long time assistant. If you are looking for a book with a plot and a story line, this is not the book for you. This book’s strength is in it’s first person storytelling format.

MARCELLA SERRANO is an award winning Chilean novelist. Her debut novel We Love You So Much won the Literary Prize in Santiago. She is widely considered one of the best Latin American writers working today.
Translated Beth Fowler
Narrated Marisol Ramirez
Publisher BrillianceAudio/ AmazonCrossing
Publication February 25, 2014

“Being old is always feeling tired. It’s waking up tired, it’s going around all day tired, and it’s going to bed tired.”

The lives of women with an international twist

Not normally the sort of book I read but I picked it up on World Literature Day because it was written by a Chilean and focused on the lives of women, two topics that are intensely interesting to me. There is a chapter for each woman in the title, all of them survivors in one way or another. Their stories, while very personal, also contain much that any woman will recognize. They struggle to decide what to wear in the morning, how to raise their children, how to escape from bad relationships and how to accept love. Anyone who knows Chile will immediately relate to the sections dealing with particularly Chilean situations (the "disappeared") and landscapes. Anyone unfamiliar with Chile will learn a little about this far-away country, its classism, its extreme deserts, the way its political past still haunts many. The women of this book, with their darkness and chaos, overwhelmed me and filled me with wonder, much as Chile has permeated my being ever since I first arrived in 1984. Or like the sea in this wonderful passage from the book, as translated by Beth Fowler:

"I came to Chile to see whether I could tolerate it. The house on the beach at Isla Negra that Natasha's psychiatrist friend rented was an important factor in my decision to stay. Isla Negra as it was back then, before it became a Neruda fetish with tourists and buses and prints, was a solitary place. It received a very specific kind of visitor, the kind of people who found it a pleasure to wind up in the snack bar where we ate fried fish. We used to spend the weekends there and since we arrived in winter, my encounter with the Chilean sea was powerful. That sea at Isla Negra, its darkness, its chaos, its inaccessibility, penetrated my heart with an unexpected force, as did the pine forests and the immense rocks."

Stories of women

I find a little of myself in each story. Universal stories no matter where you are in the world. The translated language was elegant. I listened as I drove and walked. I've already bought a copy I can highlight and refer back.

Really enjoyed this audiobook.

Enjoyed both the stories within as well as the narration......and I am picky about both.

Not my kind of book

It does illustrate once again that no matter where you live, people are similar in the life struggles they bear.

Somewhat Depressing

I don't usually read this type of book, but I gave it a try. It was hard going and a little depressing for me. The stories were good and characters were very unique and believable. But it didn't do anything for me. I stuck with it to the end and was thankful when it was over.

not a favorite (listened on Audible)

Each chapter was a different woman's story told in first person. The characters did not interact with each other at all, their only link was the therapist who didn't enter the story until chapter 11. Then her story was told by her assistant, which was confusing because she would switch from Natasha's story to her own without a clear delineation of storyline.
The Audible narrator did each character in practically the same voice. I ended up skipping ahead on several chapters because things seemed to really drag and I just couldn't take it.
I don't feel that the epilogue wrapped things up very well. There still was no interaction between the therapist and the characters ( if there was I must have missed it), and you just 'see' the other 9 women getting in the bus. It was frustrating to jot have anything solid happen between the characters. Maybe other readers have a different take on the format.

Touched my heart, inspiring

I love this book!!! So many facets of different women are described in this story.

Hidden jewel about all women everywhere.

As a woman, and as a woman who dedicated over 25 years to the welfare of women and children, I recognized myself and every woman I ever met in these 10 stories... interestingly gathered by their therapist to form a new support system, which women naturally do whether they believe it their nature or not!