Last summer, Romina Garber’s Lobizona was picked as the book for the Read Brave Talk Brave program — a Saint Paul-area library reading program that invites community members to read the same book over the course of a year. The author, other panelists, and readers were brought together in March to discuss the book, as well as to enjoy catering by local chefs.
Lobizona is a vibrant, magical, and poignant coming-of-age story about undocumented teenager Manuela ‘Manu’ Azul, who must conceal her true identity — both in the real world against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and in a fantastical world out of Argentinian folklore. In the magical though rigidly gendered realm, men are lobizons (werewolves) and women are brujas (witches). Manu discovers she is a lobizona, a female werewolf whose very existence defies magical law.