A Daughter’s Place
2025
“Bátiz reinvents the untold stories of the women around Miguel de Cervantes, and they are as ingenious as the sad knight himself. Read this wonderful book.”
THE DISAPPEARED AND SPEAK, SILENCE
A sweeping historical romance inspired by the real-life daughter of Miguel de Cervantes, celebrated author of Don Quixote
Madrid, 1599. Following her mother’s sudden death, fifteen-year-old Isabel goes to live in the family home of her father, the poet and war hero Miguel de Cervantes, a man she has never met. Forced to pose as a maid to conceal her illegitimate status, Isabel must adapt to a new way of life with her jealous cousin and protective aunts while she waits for her father to return from Seville. Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Esquivias, Miguel’s pious and faithful wife Catalina similarly awaits his return, blissfully unaware of Isabel’s existence.
As Miguel works on the manuscript that will become his masterpiece, Don Quixote, the years pass and Isabel grows into womanhood, falling in and out love, uncovering family secrets, and yearning for the legitimacy denied her by a rigid and callous society. Capturing two tumultuous decades of Golden Age Spain in rich historical detail, Martha Bátiz paints a compassionate portrait of a family on the precipice of great change and the fiercely independent woman at its centre striving to make a life of her own.”
No Stars in the Sky
2022
“Profoundly moving and beautifully written . . . each story is its own universe that transports the reader through the characters’ joy and pain.”
— Amy Stuart
Yıldızsız Gökyüzü
2022
The Turkish edition of No Stars in the Star
Translated by Ayse Sena Kurt
(Turkish translation of No Stars in the Sky) Kişisel çatışmalar ve kadın bedenini bir savaş ganimeti olarak gören baskıcı rejimler yüzünden acılar çeken Yıldızsız Gökyüzü’ndeki kadınlar çok yüksek bedeller ödeyerek de olsa kendilerini paramparça eden ya da güçlendiren hayatlarını değiştiren koşullarla karşı karşıya kalıyorlar. Latin Amerika köklerine sadık kalan Martha Bátiz kendisini yakından ilgilendiren krizlere ışık tutuyor: Hayatta kalmayı sürekli bir mücadeleye dönüştüren Meksika-ABD sınırındaki göçmen çocukların içinde bulunduğu içler acısı durum Meksika ve Arjantin’deki yok oluşların trajedisi yaygınlaşan ırkçılık ve ev içi şiddet… Bátiz korkusuz elleriyle çoğu zaman görmezden gelinen sessiz trajedileri ortaya çıkarmak için insanların durumlarını açık yüreklilikle araştırıyor.
Boca de lobo. Novela corta a dos voces y un cuaderno (Damiana’s Reprieve/ The Wolf’s Mouth) (Audiobook)
2021
Novella awarded the Premio Casa de Teatro in Spanish audiobook format
Narrated by Karla Hernández and Rosa Vásquez
La gueule du loup: Court roman à deux voix en un cahier (French edition of Damiana’s Reprieve/ The Wolf’s Mouth)
2018
The French edition of Damiana’s Reprieve/ The Wolf’s Mouth
Translated by Khristina Legault.
« D’une finesse et d’une force émotive remarquables, ce roman ancré dans l’intensité de la ville de Mexico dévoile l’histoire d’une famille d’artistes déchirée par les conflits. Tout part de Damiana, jeune chanteuse d’opéra forcée d’affronter ses fantômes lorsqu’elle revient dans son pays natal offrir une série de spectacles. Martha B. Bátiz Zuk compose des scènes dynamiques où elle alterne rythmiquement les perspectives et glisse d’un souvenir à l’autre avec agilité. Pour sa part, Khristina Legault offre une traduction élégante et transmet brillamment la sensibilité du texte original. » — Hugh Hazelton
Damiana’s Reprieve
2018
The English edition of Damiana’s Reprieve/ The Wolf’s Mouth
Translated by Gustavo Escobedo
Winner of the Casa de Teatro Prize (and originally published as Boca de lobo / The Wolf’s Mouth), Damiana’s Reprieve focuses on a young opera singer whose world takes an unexpected, dramatic turn
Winner of the Casa de Teatro Prize (Dominican Republic), Damiana’s Reprieve is a fine novella distinguished by insight and sensitivity. It gives a candid look at a young opera singer—what happens backstage before and during performances, and what happens when unexpected turns in life leave one facing the not-so-cliché reality that the show must go on.
Damiana is the lead in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and leading up to the opening day’s performance a sequence of unexpected events—from a surprise family reunion that forces her to analyze her past, to facing the consequences of the domestic abuse she and her siblings endured, and finding the answer to a very painful question—culminate to leave her world forever altered. Translated from the Spanish by Gustavo Escobedo.
Plaza Requiem. Stories at the Edge of Ordinary Lives
2017
Winner of the 2018 International Latino Book Award for Best Popular Fiction, this is Martha’s first short-story collection written entirely in English.
In Plaza Requiem: Stories at the Edge of Ordinary Lives, Martha Bátiz has crafted short fictions that are most often about women who are trapped in violent relationships, facing dangerous political situations, or learning to live with the pain of betrayal. These stories shimmer with the surge of vindication that women attain after a powerful exploration of their darkest moments. As an emerging writer, Bátiz is reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates, Shirley Jackson, and the Cuban author Leonardo Padura, sharing their qualities of precision, haunting vision, and the will to survive against all odds.
De tránsito
2014
Colección ganadora del International Latino Book Award en la categoría de Best Popular Fiction en 2015, estos cuentos muestran personajes femeninos con el valor de llegar hasta las últimas consecuencias de sus actos.
En una carta personal a Martha Bátiz con fecha del 4 de febrero del 2003, el gran poeta Eugenio Montejo escribió desde Caracas: “Sus relatos me han impresionado muy favorablemente. Leí el prólogo de Sada después de haber leído varios de sus cuentos. Cuando él habla de “su libro hecho a conciencia y retrabajado hasta el delirio”, deja ver la honda raíz de su vocación de narradora, y me explica lo que de entrada percibí en Ud.: un dominio preciso, sensible pero riguroso del lenguaje. La felicito sinceramente. La voz que narra “Paganini entre dos”, con su acertado manejo de ángulos y adjetivación feliz, no menciona, sin embargo –no lo cree necesario para su historia- qué piezas le ha tocado el padre cada noche. Y el lector que ama a Paganini sabe que de alguna manera la música del famoso italiano –que tenía pacto con el diablo, según la creencia popular- de algún modo anticipa el destino de la amiga.” Martha Bátiz ha sido definida por el crítico dominicano Néstor Rodríguez como “una escritora que asume su oficio con el estoicismo y disciplina de los grandes maestros.” En esta nueva colección de cuentos, que incluye el que Montejo elogió, se muestran en carne viva las inquietudes y preocupaciones de Bátiz: la traición, el desamor, el desarraigo, la pérdida de la patria y la libertad, y sus violentas consecuencias.
A todos los voy a matar
2000
“El lector tiene en sus manos una obra originalísima en nuestro entorno. A todos los voy a matar es la apuesta frenética de una autora que sabe lo que quiere, que conoce a la gente y que es capaz de dejarse contagiar por los sentimientos de sus personajes, así como de sus estados de ánimo, a fin de darle mayor amplitud dramática a las situaciones en las que se ven envueltos.”
— Daniel Sada
En esta, su primera colección de cuentos, con prólogo del celebrado escritor Daniel Sada, Martha explora la dificultad de enfrentar la realidad, y revela ante el lector una serie de mujeres determinadas a tomar incluso la más cruel de las decisiones.
