"One of Latin America's finest pens the book we've all been waiting for! Aridjis renders a true to life portrait of the mysterious curandera whose name has become synonymous with the medicine of 'magic' mushrooms, and 1960s hippy counterculture. A woman, small in stature but immense in reputation, from the mountains of Oaxaca, who has captured the global and cultural imagination for more than half a century, Maria Sabina, is depicted here with the grace and reverence her legacy deserves, while at the same time raising questions about the appropriation that has long been a pastime of norteamericanos seeking an ethnic, and dare I say, magical experience south of the border. Only a novelist, poet, and environmentalist of Aridjis's skill and position could handle such a delicate subject and make it a compelling read! And this careful translation offered by Chloe Garcia Roberts wholly elevates the textual and visual experience of Aridjis's writing. What an achievement! What a story!" - Tim Z. Hernandez, author of They Call You Back
"Imagine a batch of Holy Children (i.e., magic mushrooms) colliding with a batch of unholy Beatniks in a remote part of Mexico. Such a collision resulted in this simultaneously surreal, lyrical, comic, and brutal Mexican novel expertly translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts!" - Lawrence Millman, author of The Last Speaker of Bear
"Carne de Dios recreates the world of Mazatec poet and shaman Marí a Sabina (1894-1985), whose mushroom ceremonies brought the U.S. beat generation to Mexico in search of esoteric knowledge, drugs and sex. Homero Aridjis, México's greatest living poet, overturns much of the mythology surrounding Beat mysticism as it comes face to face with an ancient spiritual tradition. This artful and accomplished translation brings Aridjis's visions to life, and captures the extraordinary power and insight of his poetics so well that the reader may wonder if they too are hallucinating as they read." - James López, University of Tampa
"The Beat poets stoned in Mexico were all María Sabina's visionary children." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti, co-founder City Lights Booksellers
