The strength of this story is in the ways it withholds information to keep us grounded in the point of view of a child, in this case Maria, Nemecia’s younger cousin, who both looks up to, fears and is jealous of her older cousin. The fibs that Nemecia tells Maria—that she killed her mother and put her grandfather in a coma—cover up a darker secret that is revealed later in the story. ‘Nemecia’ is a stunning example of how a novel’s-worth of family secrets and complex relationships can be deftly condensed in a couple-dozen pages.
First published in Narrative, and available to read here. Collected in Night at the Fiestas, Norton, 2015, as well as in Best American Short Stories 2013
A Personal Anthology 