In a Nutshell:

Published by Restless Books, a US indie publisher and written in 2009, Nueve Lunas in Spanish, this wonderful essay collection was translated into English in 2019 by Jessica Powell.

Each chapter is a month of Wiener’s pregnancy, she is from Lima, at athe time of writing the book, she was living in Barcelona with her husband, J.

Themes:

 The book charts the progress of her pregnancy, but she also talks about her childhood, gender, mother and daughter relationships, her relationships and her move from Peru-Spain.

A brilliant book, effortlessly (seemingly) translated by Jessica Powell. I won’t say anything else other than read the afterword.

An Observation:

Nine moons, nueve lunas, refers to pregnant women as pornographic fodder, “apparently pregnant women were a pornographic species in themselves, called “nine moons.”

Quotes:

“These days, a woman gets pregnant because the idea doesn’t disgust her. Though it does make her a bit queasy.”

“They say that the nausea is a response to the emotional black hole that comes with the knowledge that you’re going to be a mother.”

“When you’re far away, you miss out on the good and the bad things that happen to the people you love.”

Stockists: I read this in Ebook format. It is available here. Wiener’s first book, Sexographies is available here.

Nine Moons

Written by Gabriela Wiener

Translated from the Spanish by Jessica Powell

11/06/2020, Restless Books (Regan Arts)

ISBN:  9781632062239

#WITMonth for 2021 is curated by Jess Andoh-Thayre

I am 35, from London but currently living in Cambodia. I am married to a diplomat and we have been posted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and now Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Prior to meeting my husband, I had also lived in La Serena, Chile and Madrid, Spain.

I am a French, Spanish and English teacher, translator, avid reader and now blogger. When I am not teaching, reading and blogging, I love catching a brilliant sunset, swimming, cycling and hanging out with my husband and son.

Author: Gabriela Wiener

Gabriela Wiener is a Peruvian writer and journalist. She has lived in Spain since 2004.

Her first stories were published in the Peruvian narrative journalism magazine Etiqueta Negra. She was editor-in-chief of Marie Claire in Spain and now regularly publishes opinion columns in a variety of publications. She won Peru’s National Journalism Award for an investigative report on a case of gender violence. She recently wrote and starred in the play Qué locura enamorarme yo de ti (How Crazy to Fall in Love with You).

Translator: Jessica Powell

Jessica Powell completed her Ph.D. in UCSB’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, specializing in literary translation and twentieth-century Latin American Literature.

She has published dozens of translations of literary works by a wide variety of Latin American writers. Nine Moons was a 2021 Firecracker Award finalist.

Jessica lives in Santa Barbara, CA with her family.