Stealing Benefacio's Roses

by Martin Prechtel

Following the acclaimed Secrets of The Talking Jaguar and Long Life, Honey in the Heart , this is an expansive, lyrical novel in the tradition of indigenous oral storytelling. Based on the author's many years of living in a Guatemalan village, Stealing Benefacio's Roses interweaves dramatic recountings of village life and the political horrors of civil war with lyric retellings of sacred Mayan myths. The story shifts expertly from timeless, with archetypal characters like Raggedy Boy and the goddess known as the Water-Skirted Beauty, to timely in the book's striking first-person narrative set in the 1980s. Prechtel shows how ancient myths can become a part of life for everyone and help nurture spiritual survival in the modern world. Though it comes third in sequence with the author's other two books, Stealing Benefacio's Roses also stands on its own as a classic work of spiritual seeking and adventure.

392 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2006

About the author

A master of eloquence and innovative language, Martín Prechtel is a leading thinker, writer and teacher whose work, both written and oral, hopes to promote the subtlety, irony and pre-modern vitality hidden in any living language. As a half blood Native American with a Pueblo Indian upbringing, his life took him from New Mexico to the village of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. There becoming a full village member of the Tzutujil Mayan population, he eventually served as a principal in that body of village leaders responsible for instructing the young people in the meanings of their ancient stories through the rituals of adult rights of passage. Once again residing in his native New Mexico, Martín teaches at his international school Bolad’s Kitchen. Through story, music, ritual and writing, Martín helps people in many lands to retain their diversity while remembering their own sense of place in the daily sacred through the search for the Indigenous Soul.

Reviews

[Brian Brogan]

I highly recommend all of Martin Prechtel's books. My favorite nonfiction storyteller who expresses a lyrically beautiful; full, authentic, integral life. Martin illustrates admirable talent, embodying an exemplary way of being in this world while interrelating with the spirit world.

[Rachel]

I put this book down last year when I was about 1/2 way through to read other books and not sure why it took me so long to pick it back up and finish.

The third book in Prechtel's beautiful series on his remarkable life is filled with wonderous prose, poetry of language, sights, scents, sounds, danger, terror and heartache. Your heart rips to shreds as his family flees the place he feels the most held, loved and connected to himself and the Earth. You feel elation as he finds his way, settles his family and meets the love he's been waiting for his whole life.

Looking forward to continuing these books with the final two.

[Jordan Wyld]

The first half of the book set my heart on fire! Wow, what a marvelous gem of writing. Martin weaves words in a way long forgotten by modern industrialized humanity.

The second half of the book dragged on a bit long, but I guess that's the way stories sometimes go.

[Dennis McClure]

I would be remiss not to warn you that this is a difficult and confusing book. It is. I had to read it twice. But it is beautiful and spiritually insightful in ways you can’t imagine.

Going back to read it a second time wasn’t even difficult.

[Fern]

Top 5! Please read, beautiful voice and healing message.

[Yle]

If you love to listen to story— this is it for you
Thank you, Martín

[Ommiolgi]

Very good book about struggle, Mayan mythology, the keeping alive of the story, and overcoming. Would highly recommend to most, thoughtful, intelligent people.

[David]

This is my favorite book that Martin Prectel has written. This is the 3rd book in the trilogy. It was brilliant in how the story was shared. It is important to read the first 2 books in the trilogy before this one.

['Matthew Bennett!]

This story acquaints the domesticated with stories of village destruction, and integrates Christian beliefs with animistic Earth-feeding ones. More on this later...