Maresi

 

Maresi / Maria Turtschaninoff;
trans. from the Finnish by Annie Prime
NY: Abrams, 2017, c2014.
246 p.

Now for another, quite different novel! In a creative feminist fantasy, this takes an island abbey of women as its setting. We have young teens as the protagonists, and a sense of the dark/middle ages as a time period at the beginning, shading over into a Cretan myth as the story progresses.

Maresi is a young girl brought to the island by her father during the hungry years. He doesn't want to see his daughter go, but it's her best chance at survival. After some rocky adjustment, she settles into life at the Red Abbey, learning history, plant lore, magic, life skills of all kinds, and how to make friendships and live with others. Then a young girl appears on the island, ragged and with a scarred back. She's escaping from men who will not give up on trying to get her back. 

Maresi befriends her, and we slowly learn her horrific backstory, full of patriarchal abuse and the murder of her sister, which pushed her to escape. Meanwhile, Maresi is feeling the call of one of the goddesses to pursue her learning in a particular direction, one which she doesn't really want. Her struggle to reconcile her own calling with what she thinks she wants is powerful and relatable.  

The conclusion of the story is harrowing, with drama, violence and a full visitation of the triple goddess, who wants her Abbey to survive. This is an innovative story, full of female experiences and no time for patriarchal excuses. It's a wonderfully drawn narrative, with strong and complex characters, plenty of myth and magic in its fabulous setting, and a driving plot that seems inescapable. 

With strong women running this show, there are lots of characters to engage with, and many serious issues to think about. Part One in a trilogy, this starts strong and makes you want book 2 asap! A translation from Finnish, this is a great discovery.