We Need No Wings

Name: We Need No Wings
Rating: 3.59 (103 reviews)
ISBN: 9781728258515

By Ann Dávila Cardinal

Publisher Description

"We need more novels that deepen our understanding of these later stages of a woman's life and put wings of hope on our hearts. The book soars, her best so far, a transcendent read." —Julia Alvarez, internationally bestselling and award-winning author

To be free, we must learn to fly.

Tere Sanchez has always known who she was: a professor, a wife, a mother, and a friend. But when her husband dies unexpectedly, she finds herself completely broken. Taking a leave from the university, Tere hopes that she can mourn her husband and get back on her feet, but instead, she spends a year consumed by grief.

Until the day she levitates.

Suddenly, Tere's life is thrown into disarray, and the repeated incidents of levitation not only make her question her sanity, but also put her in danger. She decides she will do anything to stop them. So when she's reminded that her family is related to the renowned levitating mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila, she leaves the refuge of her home and travels to Spain, hoping to find answers. But Saints can be elusive, and not all answers are easily found. Tere will soon have to decide whether to remain shrouded in her grief, or open her heart to a world where we need no wings to fly…

From the award-winning author of The Storyteller's Death comes a riveting, multicultural story about what it means to love, heal, and take flight.

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We Need No Wings Reviews

3.5

Lisa K.

Created 3 days ago

“I've heard of soul mates, soul pets, and even soul food. Is it possible to have a soul book as well? For me, the answer is yes, and I found it in WE NEED NO WINGs by Ann Dávila Cardinal. Perhaps I simply relate to the character of Tere Sánchez in so many different ways. She just turned 60, lost her husband a year earlier, and struggles with the political reality of working in academia, although she loves teaching. She’s at a crossroads, where she is unsure how she fits into the world—a woman feeling invisible and a loss of identity as everything shifts in her life. I am 58, my husband is still alive (and I hope it stays that way), and I left my academic teaching jobs because I struggled with the political reality of working in academia, although I love teaching. I have been wandering through my days in search of myself and my own identity. That’s enough to make this my soul book. But this book shines for reasons beyond that. It contains everything I love, gorgeous writing, wit, humor, depth, curiosity, and a touch of mysticism. After all, Tere’s journey into healing begins on the day she levitates. The writing is at times witty, hilarious, snarky, eloquent, and thoughtful. Breathtaking and evocative descriptions drew me in from the very first page: “As she inhaled, a feeling of lightness spread through her body, not the dizziness that sometimes plagued her, no. More like the restraints of her day-to-day life released their hold…” (1-2) Her need to discover the answers regarding levitation, leads her to Ávila, Spain in search of stories of her distant ancestor, Saint Teresa of Ávila. As she walks through the city, I walk with her. I’ve never been there, but now I see clearly in my mind’s eye (aided also by the need to look up images of all the locations and artworks mentioned in the book. Meanwhile, Tere’s journey resonates with questions about love, life, loss aging, spirituality, organized religion, and the not-so-subtle misogyny that women face daily in a world ruled by patriarchy. I discovered answers, and perhaps more questions, with every single word. Ultimately, Ann Dávila Cardinal has written a transcendent book that gives everyone searching for their next steps a chance to soar.”

Leah

Mily Mills

Tacy Anderson

BookishAmelie

Created about 1 month ago

About Ann Dávila Cardinal

Ann Dávila Cardinal is a two-time International Latino Book Award winning novelist and aging tattooed punk. Her first young adult horror novel, Five Midnights, was released in 2019, its sequel, Category Five, in 2020, and her horror rom-com, Breakup From Hell, in January of 2023. Her adult debut, the novel The Storyteller’s Death, was released by Sourcebooks in 2022, and her next magical realist adult novel, We Need No Wings, will be coming on September 10, 2024. Ann’s middle grade and nonfiction debut, Hispanic Star: Bad Bunny, releases on September 3, 2024, and her young adult horror comedy, You’ve Awoken Her, in summer 2025.

Five Midnights won an AudioFile Earphones Award, an International Latino Book Award (2020), and was a finalist for a Bram Stoker Award. Category Five was a finalist for the 2021 International Latino Book Award. The Storyteller's Death was a finalist for the Vermont Book Award and won gold in the popular fiction category of the International Latino Book Awards, 2023.

Her stories have appeared in a number of anthologies, including Our Shadows Have Claws (2022), Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (2022), Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic (2020); and the forthcoming alternate World War II horror anthology, Combat Monsters.