A Journey Towards Change

No Stars in the Sky, by Martha Bátiz

A journey towards change

No Stars in the Sky features 19 stories that touch upon themes and subjects that are very close to my heart, that keep me up at night and that, more often than not, are very present in our everyday news. Like so many stories in the world, they were born out of personal pain. They are also a way of expressing my sadness and outrage at certain political and social injustices taking place around us, particularly in Latin America. The details of the stories are fictional but reflect disturbing realities —realities that disturb me deeply. I know, however, that pain that goes unspoken and unseen cannot ever heal, so it is important to face it, to confront it, no matter how hard that may be.

That is precisely why I worked so hard to turn the stories that comprise No Stars in the Sky into an accurate reflection of our time. It would have been dishonest of me to sugar-coat certain situations to make them more palatable. Having said that, I also strived to use strike a balance by making sure that the words I chose, and the imagery, convey the beauty and aesthetic pleasure that define a work of art. 

As a Mexican-Canadian author, English is my second language. Crafting a book in a language that I have adopted, tamed, and made mine throughout the years, was not easy, but I felt the urge to put into writing the truths that I have not found in other books: that Latin America is more than beautiful beaches and fiestas, and definitively much more than drug cartels and poverty-stricken people.

I want to honour Latin American women, who are the ones keeping our nations alive and holding our regimes accountable for the unspeakable crimes that sometimes they themselves have committed against their own citizens. By putting myself in my characters’ shoes and telling their tales from their own personal points of view, I want to lend a voice to those who do not have one.  My background as a professional actor helped me approach my creative process in the same way that I did back when I was preparing myself to play a role on stage. By imagining what the world looks like from their perspective —what they see, and feel and smell— I was able to travel deep within their soul. My goal is to make sure that you, or any reader who visits my stories, walks out of them feeling different than before. Different how, you may ask? Moved? Shocked? Sad? Surprised? Speechless? Yes, all that —and more. 

My parents were performers and they taught me that art exists in order to elevate people’s spirit, to make them go through an emotional experience they would otherwise have never had. As musicians, they were able to elicit very passionate responses from their audience, who usually rose to their feet to offer them an enthusiastic round of applause. Literature doesn’t provide writers and readers with this kind of immediate communication. There is no applause. There is only silence. But if that silence is filled with emotion, I have done my duty. 

Not all stories in No Stars in the Sky are dark, though. One of my own favourites is based on my mother’s experience when she played the first piano recital ever in a tiny town in the middle of the mountains in the state of Hidalgo, in my native Mexico. I tried to capture the wonder and the joy that music can bring, and show why it is the most universal of human languages. Another is based on the resilience of the great Korean poet Ko Un, whose work I had the opportunity to get acquainted with when he was honoured with The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry’s Lifetime Recognition Award in Toronto, back in 2008. And there are a few surprises for lovers of Greek mythology, which is one of my passions. 

A few stories talk about motherhood. As a mother of three, I know how challenging society’s expectations are, and how much pressure mothers are under. But not only mothers —all women, in general, face extraordinary trials, and in this, my most feminist book to date, I want to honour them. Honour us. Because things do not have to continue to be this way, and the only way to change them is to acknowledge what is wrong first. No Stars in the Sky exposes many of those wrongs, hoping that we can work together and help turn them around. All small gestures count. Awareness counts. 

As I say in the opening page of No Stars in the Sky, anyone who is triggered by violence against women, suicide, racism, injustice, and loss, should perhaps sit this book out. But for readers who are ready to catch a glimpse of strong characters making the best of their lives against all odds, it will be my honour to guide them on a journey that, I hope, will leave them —will leave you— forever changed.  

NO STARS IN THE SKY

“Profoundly moving and beautifully written . . . each story is its own universe that transports the reader through the characters’ joy and pain.” — Amy Stuart 

The nineteen stories in No Stars in the Sky feature strong but damaged female characters in crisis. Tormented by personal conflicts and oppressive regimes that treat the female body like a trophy of war, the women in No Stars in the Sky face life-altering circumstances that either shatter or make them stronger, albeit at a very high price. True to her Latin American roots, Bátiz shines a light on the crises that concern her most: the plight of migrant children along the Mexico–U.S. border, the tragedy of the disappeared in Mexico and Argentina, and the generalized racial and domestic violence that has turned life into a constant struggle for survival. With an unflinching hand, Bátiz explores the breadth of the human condition to expose silent tragedies too often ignored.

No Stars in the Sky

 

 

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