To Catch a Moon

Rym Kechacha

Description

Mexico City, 1955. The painter Remedios Varo sits in her kitchen with her friend, the artist Leonora Carrington. Together they let their imaginations soar beyond their canvases to create new worlds. In the surreal landscape of her imagination, Varo's creations take on a life and power of their own. A wheeled spirit of the earth kidnaps a baby star; a woman who is half owl draws herself a daughter; a juggler entrances a crowd of grey-cloaked men, a lion and a goat. The rules that govern this world bend and creak, old alliances break, and an impending apocalypse forges the most unlikely of friendships.Rym Kechacha (Dark River, British Fantasy Awards finalist 2021) spins a wild fantasy from Varo's dreamlike imaginings, a world in which the moon's daughter holds the key to mankind's fate. Populated by witches, sentient animals, and a lion made of leaves, To Catch a Moon is a bold and fearless ode to the power of Remedios Varo's timeless paintings.Rym Kechacha has created an enchanting world, filled with the magical, mysterious and mesmerising. It left me spellbound.- Elizabeth Lee, author of Cunning WomenIt's visionary. It's passionate. It's arty. It's twisty and turn-y. It's an extraordinary journey into the mind of two artists - Remedios Varo's, and Rym Kechacha's.- Francesco Dimitri, author of The Book of Hidden Things and Never the WindA surreal, mystical, celestial wonder of a book! To Catch a Moon is an inspired creation.- Oliver Langmead, author of Birds of Paradise and GlitteratiExceptional, impossibly beautiful, important.- Anna Smith Spark, author of the Empires of Dust trilogyTo say that there are owl women and witches and daughters of the moon, seamstresses and writers and painters who can call worlds into being, enchantments and sorrows, is to only scratch the surface of this extraordinary new novel by Rym Kechacha. Inspired by the work of Spanish surrealist Remedios Varo, this is a magical, melancholy story, the kind of book that makes you remember why you love reading in the first place.- Lynda E. Rucker, award-winning author of The Moon Will Look StrangeThrough Kechacha's exquisite writing, the many glamours, both dark and light, of the world of To Catch a Moon will transfer to the reader like a spell. A weird and wonderful fairy tale that pays due homage to its inspiration.- Peter Haynes, author of The Willow By Your Side

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Distributed by eBookpartnership
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912658190
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 18 Mo

Extrait

“It’s visionary. It’s passionate. It’s arty. It’s twisty and turn-y. It’s an extraordinary journey into the mind of two artists - Remedios Varo’s, and Rym Kechacha’s.” Francesco Dimitri, author of The Book of Hidden Things and Never the Wind
“Rym Kechacha has created an enchanting world, filled with the magical, mysterious and mesmerising. It left me spellbound.” Elizabeth Lee, author of Cunning Women
“Exceptional, impossibly beautiful, important.” Anna Smith Spark, author of the Empires of Dust trilogy
“To say that there are owl women and witches and daughters of the moon, seamstresses and writers and painters who can call worlds into being, enchantments and sorrows, is to only scratch the surface of this extraordinary new novel by Rym Kechacha. Inspired by the work of Spanish surrealist Remedios Varo, this is a magical, melancholy story, the kind of book that makes you remember why you love reading in the first place” Lynda E. Rucker, award-winning author of The Moon Will Look Strange
“A surreal, mystical, celestial wonder of a book! To Catch a Moon is an inspired creation.” Oliver Langmead, author of Birds Of Paradise and Glitterati
“ Through Kechacha’s exquisite writing, the many glamours, both dark and light, of the world of To Catch a Moon will transfer to the reader like a spell. A weird and wonderful fairy tale that pays due homage to its inspiration. ” Peter Haynes, author of The Willow by Your Side .



Also available from Unsung Stories

The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley
Dark Star by Oliver Langmead
Winter by Dan Grace
The Bearer of Grievances by Joseph McKinley
The Dancer by Rab Ferguson
The Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley
Metronome by Oliver Langmead
Pseudotooth by Verity Holloway
You Will Grow Into Them by Malcolm Devlin
2084 edited by George Sandison
This Dreaming Isle edited by Dan Coxon
The Willow By Your Side by Peter Haynes
The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley
Always North by Vicki Jarrett
Dark River by Rym Kechacha
Threading the Labyrinth by Tiffani Angus
Greensmith by Aliya Whiteley
Out of the Darkness edited by Dan Coxon
Gigantic by Ashley Stokes
Unexpected Places to Fall From by Malcolm Devlin
Whirlwind Romance by Sam Thompson



Published by Unsung Stories

3 Rosslyn Road
London E17 9EU, United Kingdom

www.unsungstories.co.uk

First edition published in 2022
First impression

© 2022 Rym Kechacha

Rym Kechacha has asserted his right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of their Work.

This book is a work of fiction. All the events and characters portrayed in this book are fictional and any similarities to persons, alive or deceased, is coincidental.


Paperback ISBN: 9781912658183
ePub ISBN: 9781912658190

Edited by Dan Coxon
Proofreading by Jonathan Oliver
Cover design by Vince Haig
Text design by Cox Design Limited
Typesetting by Vince Haig

Printed in the UK by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.



For Ed



TABLE oF Contents
Author's note
Chanson
Madrigal
Ballata
Toccata
Tiento
Caccia
Ricercar
Prelude
Laude
Allegro
Saltarello
Intermedio
Galliard
Ballade
Cantus Firmus
Estampie
Organum
Fantasia
Fugue
Antiphon
Cadenza
Sequence
Ostinato
Ritornello
Pavane
Carol
Scherzo
Coda
Acknowledgements
About the Author



Author's note
Remedios Varo was born in 1908 in Spain. She was exiled from Spain to Paris because of the Spanish Civil War and then fled the Nazi occupation of France. She settled in Mexico City, where she painted surrealist images charged with symbols of myth, witchcraft, astrology and dreams. Her legacy, as well as that of her contemporary female surrealists, is being rediscovered by a new generation. Remedios died suddenly in 1963.
I have invented the events of this novel; however, I cannot say for sure they didn’t happen.



Chanson
Section 9, clause 13
The signatories accept that this contract may be ended at any moment in space or time, subject to the dreams and desires of the Artist.

Mexico City, 1955

Remedios Varo is sitting at her kitchen table and thinking about the moon; the ponderous curve of its belly as it hangs full, the tender arc of its crescent, the dark patches of shadows where surely there are mountains and lakes hidden on its surface. There should be a moon of some sort in the painting she is working on but she cannot see where it should be, or in what phase she should paint it. She thought this morning that she should paint the moon personified, a woman wearing an evening dress made of tiny shards of glass, but she cannot envision where she would put such a woman in the painting; her presence would disrupt the harmony of the composition in a way the moon never disrupts the sky. Should she paint the moon as a man? She laughs away the thought as soon as it enters her mind. The moon is female, any cursory glance at the sky will tell you that.
She eats roasted corn one kernel at a time while she waits for Leonora. The clock ticks; motes of dust drift lazily in the sludgy afternoon light; a fly lands on the soft avocados in the bowl above the sink. She feels as though the world is suspended in this sticky moment and she is glad . If the world stops turning and this is all there will ever be , she thinks, I will never have to finish that painting.
Leonora announces herself, calling out, ‘Cuckoo, I’m here,’ and Remedios tips more roasted corn from the pan into the bowl. Leo pushes the door to the kitchen open with her backside and it bangs against the cupboard. An apron no one ever wears falls off the hook onto the grimy tiles.
Leo’s arms are laden; she carries a basket full of herbs. She looks like one of the old women pitching and rolling like sailors with their bandy legs, carrying baskets on their heads with coriander spilling from the sides. Remedios takes the bundles of green and kisses her on both cheeks.
‘I went to see the brujas at the mercado Sonora,’ Leonora says, her accent missing the rasp on the jota and the rolling of the tongue on the erre . After all these years, she still sounds like a duchess on a curiosity tour of Andalusian cathedrals, even though her Spanish is flawless in its grammar.
‘What did they give you?’
‘I asked La Flaca for something that would bring visions and she was thrilled – you know what she’s like. She says she’s got you in for an appointment next Thursday if you still want it?’
Remedios sets the herbs on the side and crushes one of the leaves between her fingers to release its scent. The kitchen begins to take on that earthy, witchy smell of green that she loves.
‘I do,’ she says. ‘The new painting is going so badly, I can’t see what it should be or where it’s going wrong.’
Leo pats her on the shoulder sympathetically. ‘I might go and see her myself. The antichrists have been at it again and it’s impossible to get a moment’s peace.’
Remedios nods at the leaves bundled on the table. ‘Tell me what you got.’
‘La Flaca gave me three herbs – I told her nothing too crazy as I have to pick the children up at four – and she assured me they won’t taste like a dragon’s ass, not like last time.’
Remedios makes a face. ‘That was foul.’
‘So, there’s sage, for clarity.’ Leo rubs her fingers along the green-grey leaves. ‘And a bit of epazote, just to make it taste nice.’
‘Thank God,’ Remedios says.
‘Quite. And then this, the magic ingredient.’ Leo runs her finger along the spine of a dark green leaf lying innocently next to the sage. ‘Toloache. Beloved of the Aztecs to guide them in their vision quests.’
‘But there’s only a little bit here,’ Remedios says. ‘She’s shorted you.’
Leo shakes her head. ‘La Flaca only gave me a little. She said she couldn’t trust us gringas to get the dose right on our own.’
‘Charming.’
‘Well, she also said it could make you fall madly in love, so I think it’s a good job she’s rationing it. Apparently, if you want to make a man crazy about you, you mix it with a little chocolate and a little menstrual blood and you slip it into his food.’
‘I do want to fall in love,’ Remedios says. ‘I want to love my work again.’
Leo rootles in her handbag while Remedios fills the kettle from the tap and lights the stove. She repeats the names of the herbs to herself, their Nahuatl cadence rolling around her ears. Eh-pah-zo-teh . Like a silvery cloud hanging low in the sky. To-lo-ah-cheh . Like a buffalo on the fringes of the desert, scraping his hoof on bare bones of rock.
Ever since she arrived in the city she’s tried to learn the language of the native plants of this sprawling continent, walking in the parks of the city to greet them, asking the beggars their names. Only now, almost ten years later, are their leaves beginning to whisper secrets when she passes.
‘She said to brew it up and stir it with these two owl’s feathers,’ Leo says, holding the feathers aloft as a yellowed piece of tissue floats to the ground. Remedios sets out a teapot and two mugs and picks the sage and the epazote from their stems to place gently inside. She drops two of the toloache leaves on top. She leans against the counter as Leo kicks off her shoes and sits at her usual spot. The two owl feathers lay on the table next to the mugs.
‘What did she tell you about this toloache, then?’ Remedios asks, curious. Later, she will dig out the notebook she keeps for this kind of thing and on a new page she will write the plant’s name and anything Leonora tells her. The next time she goes to see La Flaca, she will a