Mararía

Mararía (1973) is the most famous novel by the Spanish Canarian writer Rafael Arozarena. Published in Barcelona by Noguer in 1973 it has subsequently been turned into a successful film.

Plot summary

The novel talks about a traveller—we don’t know much about him—who goes to the village of Femés in Lanzarote; there he’s interested about an old woman, who walks in the shadows at night. She is María, who everybody calls Mararía. Woman, lover or witch, but a myth over all. His interest is fed by the stories that he can listen from the people who live in the village, where everyone had fallen in her net in the past.

Whenever she loved someone, their relationship ended badly, and everybody in the village thinks she is guilty for their suffering. Now she is an old woman who walks in the dark and endures barking dogs and people’s comments. She is a symbol of purification and self-destruction.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel has been adapted for film in 1998.