The Ways of Walls and Words

by Sabrina Vourvoulias

Anica and Bienvenida pass prayers and small comforts through the gaps in the prison walls. Incarcerated by the Inquisition for the faith she won't surrender, Anica longs for solace for her family and freedom for herself. And Bienvenida, heir to her mother's Nahua magic, now practiced out of sight of the Spanish religious authorities, will trade a great deal for the fragile chance at friendship and snippets of poetry.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction, Magic, Historical, Magical Realism, Tragedy

24 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 15, 2015

About the author

My novel, Ink, was published by Crossed Genres in October of 2012. (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...)

I was born in Bangkok, Thailand -- the daughter of a Mexican-Guatemalan artist and an American businessman. I grew up in Guatemala, and moved to the United States when I was 15. I studied filmmaking and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., which -- it has to be said -- suited me for none (and every one) of the occupations I've plied since.

I've done stints as everything from art gallery assistant to the director of a historic opera house, but eventually found my way, permanently, to newspapers. I've been staff writer, production coordinator, editor and managing editor at a string of local weekly newspapers in New York and Pennsylvania; I briefly edited a monthly magazine as well. I'm currently the managing editor at Philadelphia's largest Spanish-language newspaper, Al Día news.I'm something of a social media enthusiast, at both work and play, and habitually haunt the Latinos in Social Media twitter party (#latism) and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Chat (#sffwrtcht).

In addition to news, I write speculative fiction and poetry. My poetry has appeared in Dappled Things, Graham House Review, We'Moon, La Bloga's Floricanto online and Scheherezade's Bequest at Cabinet des Fees. My fiction has appeared at Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Crossed Genres #24 and in the Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History; The Many Tortures of Anthony Cardno; Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction; Fat Girl in a Strange Land and Crossed Genres Year Two anthologies and is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of GUD magazine and in the anthology Latino/a Rising.

Though my favorite place in the world is a small log cabin in the Central New York woods, I live in a charming, dilapidated old farmhouse about an hour outside of Philadelphia, with my husband (a diehard Minnesota Twins fan) and a brilliant and cantankerous teenage daughter who refuses to speak Spanish though her pronunciation is perfect.

Reviews

[karen]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.

i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.

and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar.

DECEMBER 3



I want to believe this is a triumph, only I am never going to forget how loneliness looks on her face.

this is somewhere in between a three and a four for me. it's lovely, haunting, sad, strong - all things i usually like, and it's got an ending with a few different branches of possibility and pretty good world-building. but here i am, doing the thing i said i wasn't going to be doing and getting dangerously close to thinking too hard about it and edging towards writing a review, which is going to ROON this project if i start going down that road.

i'm still working out the shape of the review part of this project and maybe still considering illustrating them with doodles, which i might go back and add later to the ones i've read already. soon i will figure it out. for now,

read it for yourself here:

http://www.tor.com/2015/04/15/the-way...

DECEMBER 1: FABLE - CHARLES YU
DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 4: GHOSTS AND EMPTIES - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER - JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP - PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 9: COOKIE JAR - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU - PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES - ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 12: THE TOMATO THIEF - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP - JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 16: THE AMBUSH - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE - ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW - PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS - PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE - MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT - SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES - KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH - CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 28: FRIEDRICH THE SNOW MAN - LEWIS SHINER
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE - EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? - KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES - TINA CONNOLLY

come to my blog!

[Althea Ann]

Two girls form an unexpected connection.
Anica is a converso, imprisoned by the Inquisition, along with her whole family, for secretly adhering to the Jewish faith. Bienvenida is a Nahuatl woman, employed by the priests to clean the corridors of the dungeon where Anica is held. The poetry - or prayers - that she hears Anica reciting spurs her to break the rules and to try to help.

Although Anica is physically jailed for her faith, Bienvenida is barely more free. And it's also her faith, her adherence to tradition and to home that keeps her in her menial position.

The story is beautifully and sensitively written. I'm not 100% sure what the author intended readers to take away from it. What I personally got out of it was that although faith and tradition can seem beautiful and comfortable, they can also be chains that cause us to limit ourselves, lose our adaptability and accede to our own demise.

Vourvoulias is definitely an author I'll be on the lookout for, going forward.

[Jyanx]

Brilliant, haunting, and bitter sweet. The writing style fits the mood, and the characters so well.

[Corrie]

“If it were not for Thee, what would become of me?”

The Ways of Walls and Words is a short story by Sabrina Vourvoulias about Anica, imprisoned with her whole family by the Inquisition for being Conversos, and Bienvenida, a native girl, wo secretly passes prayers and small comforts through the gaps in the prison walls.

Anica longs for solace for her family and freedom for herself. And Bienvenida, heir to her mother's Nahua magic, now practiced out of sight of the Spanish religious authorities, will trade a great deal for the fragile chance at friendship and snippets of poetry.

Gut-wrenchingly beautiful.

Themes: The New World, Inquisition, Jews, so sad.

4 Stars

[Dennis]

I found this novella (or extended short story) exceedingly beautiful in its language and sentiment. Written in the first person, it's an account by a young girl of Central American natives persecuted by Spanish missionaries not only for refusing to convert but being Jews. Living in South America and being witness to the damage done to indigenous peoples by the missionaries, this gave me another perspective by adding in the twist of the missionaries' persecution of Jews, a sort of extension on the Inquisition. There are alliances in this book as well to support the persecuted but what stood out for me was the beauty amidst the brutality and ignorance. I'm thinking of reading it again this holiday season. Short but worth it.

[atmatos]

Well written and melancholy.

[Xan Rooyen]

Beautiful and heart-breaking!

[carol.]

http://www.tor.com/2015/04/15/the-way...

[Kimikimi]

There's a lot going on in this story under the surface. I makes me think of all the ways humans are cruel to each other and all the ways we learn to survive it, however temporary that survival is.

[Tym]

A beautiful story tinged with melancholy and hope at the same time.

[Nyssa]

While beautifully written, the story did not grab me, and my attention started to wander....

[Mayumi]

Li aqui, marquei lido aqui: Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2015 edition.

História muito bonita sobre conexões humanas, como a religião sustenta as pessoas, mas também como a religião derruba as pessoas (pois as pessoas encarceradas estão lá porque têm "a religião errada"). Conto muito bonito e dolorido.

[Amy]

Beautiful, sad magic-realism tale of one girl saving another. One is a Native American whose family labors for the Spanish but still follows the old ways of their people. The other is imprisoned by the Inquisition as a crypto-Jew.

[Nicole Lisa]

This was so good I'm going out and finding everything that Sabrina Vourvoulias has written. Not only is the writing great, but the premise is really different: a Jewish girl imprisoned in Mexico City by the Spanish Inquisition which is trying to force her to convert and a Nahua girl who is an apprentice priestess or herbwoman or witch (it's not clear to me) and the connection they form. Just an incredible amount is packed into this.

This is maybe a novellette (really short) and definite CN for torture and religious violence

[Laurie]

I didn't get it.

[Lucy]

Not for me

[Simon]

Beautiful and awful, opening up history in a gentle and chilling way. Love the language and the ideas here.

[Michelle]

A lovely short for a younger audience

[Vanellope]

A lot of emotions for such a short story

[Anna]

depressing, but well written

[Matt Vandegriff]

I really enjoyed reading this short story. It was fantastically written and quite interesting. In novels I like the world in which the work operates to be clearly delineated, but short stories are a whole different game. I found the unanswered questions of the world in which this story was written to create such an intriguing atmosphere. The story is the intersection between presumably future interpretations of culture/religion, between Spain, the Aztec, and differing associated spiritualities. As this is the first thing I happened to read by Sabrina Vourvoulias (I just stumbled on the TOR posting online), I don't know if this relates to other works of hers, but this story definitely makes me want to find out. The sweetness and mystery of this work definitely encourages me to read more of her writing.

[Sarah]

I generally enjoy historical fantasy and this story was no exception. I tend to enjoy magical realism as well, so this was a lovely little read for me.

[Barbara]

Tor short story.

[elle]

rtc when I'm not past bedtime.