In the literary traditions of two disparate writers, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, Gabby examines the introduction of ghosts as a tool to connect protagonists' historical past to a defining identity of the present. This compact, compelling study of four women writers spans time and space, cultural identity and affinity, and throughout Gibby provides invaluable insights on the ineradicable historical traumas of women across cultural/physical borders. Examining the metaphor of ghosts in the fiction of the Erna Brober (Jamaican), Zoé Valdés (Cuban), Sandra Cisneros (Mexican American), and Maryse Condé (Guadeloupian), the author links the traumas of the past—slavery, dehumanization—to a search for self-identification rooted in the historical present. The ancestral female ghosts recover and embolden female voices, transcending time. This reclamation rejects the historical marginalization that failed to recognize the wholeness of the protagonists’ femininity and self-worth. Whether literal or figurative, the representation of ghosts links traumas that “collaps(e) the boundaries of space and time to restore what was lost, forgotten, and broken.” The global images that haunt the female protagonists link painful memory to restorative present. Adding to comparative literature in general and to the literature of women writers across the Americas, the book is expertly researched and detailed in its examination of the novels. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

Choice Reviews

“Sensitively argued and meticulously researched, Ancestral Voices, Healing Narratives makes a valuable contribution to the literary reappraisal of memory and trauma. Through a comprehensive analysis of female ghosts in contemporary US and Caribbean fiction, Kristina Gibby provides an innovative, and ultimately empowering, lens for coming to terms with a traumatic past and finding a path to healing.”

Bonnie Thomas, University of Western Australia

“Ancestral Voices, Healing Narratives: Female Ghosts in Contemporary US and Caribbean Fiction offers an innovative way of reading the authors Maryse Condé, Erna Brodber, Sandra Cisneros and Zoé Valdés. By providing a meditation on the multiple ways texts can be inhabited, Kristina Gibby allows us to see the traces of both trauma and healing that connect female authors from the US and the Caribbean. The result is a spectrally vibrant account of literary spiritual voices whose imaginaries of history, time, and memory are rich, rebellious, and complicated.”

Solimar Otero, Indiana University-Bloomington