MOGADOR by Alberto Ruy Sanchez, translated...

MOGADOR by Alberto Ruy Sanchez, translated from the Spanish by Mark Schafer (City Lights Books: $7.95; 107 pp . , paperback original). This misty novel about an enigmatic woman won the 1987 Villarrutia Prize for best Mexican novel. Fatma spends her days gazing out her windows to the sea, captivated by the fuliginous light of the North African shore. Fascinated by half-seen visions, she remains unaware that she’s become of an object of curiosity in her village, even though “the whispering practically tapped her on the back when she went to the market.” Fatma’s dreams take an eerie turn after she enjoys a passionate fling in the symbolic labyrinth of the public bath. In Schafer’s sensual translation, Sanchez’s prose captures the reader like a web of silken bonds--soft, but unyielding.