Review of the novel Black Mangrove

Abstract

Pilar Rivero has written academic and popular texts, focused on gender studies, the mechanisms of migrant artists and writers, as well as the journey they experience. Recently, and without straying from the narrative that recreates the female universe, with her novel Mangle negro, she ventures into fiction literature, whose plot revolves around the life of Alba (the protagonist), who, by maternal inheritance, is refractory to lies. In order to seek the truth of her existence and of the life/death of her father, she decides to go to the port where her grandmother Teodora lives, a place surrounded by mangroves that hold secrets in their roots. Alba's family harbors mysteries, truths that are difficult to bear and lies that are in constant danger of being revealed, whether through confessions, memories or rumors from people close to them. She does not like this reality, it hurts her, hence the protagonist builds a parallel world around her, with strange places, fantastic beings and characters.