Turn to the Stars
a lyrical hybrid memoir
by Susana Sevilla Aho
Available now
A mother arrested in the hospital after giving birth and imprisoned under Argentina’s military dictatorship.
A grandfather who crossed the Atlantic as an orphan and found solace in the occult.
A writer who inherits their search for belonging, moving between countries and languages, carrying the histories of those who came before her.
Sparked by an astrological document found in her grandfather’s office, Susana Sevilla Aho turns, in this lyrical hybrid memoir, to the wandering of planets—those original exiles—and to the cosmos as a place to belong when nations fail us.
Part family archive, part elegy, part star chart, Turn to the Stars traces one family’s history against an expanding sky.
In a captivating and luminous journey this book conjures up history, family memories, and cosmology to engage readers in a brave search for home and identity. From the Argentina of our tragedies, Sevilla Aho rises to the stars for answers with the courageous will to “see just how unclear the story is.” Her tender and prophetic verse becomes a shield against despair.
-Alicia Partnoy
Author of The Little School. Tales of Disappearance and Survival
"The astrological drawings contain circles upon circles, orbits of fate. My grandfather seems to be back from the dead with his star charts to show me a glimpse of his esoteric pursuits, and to show me how he tried to understand my mother’s story and the political turbulence she lived through.
There are glyphs and calculations and long paragraphs of analysis and predictions. Even though I can’t understand everything in it, I feel like this language of circles, this spinning wheel of fate, seems to make some kind of sense here.
There’s something I want to follow.
Another outline to trace."
Susana Sevilla Aho is a writer and poet whose work spans poetry, memoir, video essay, and screenwriting. She grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Buenos Aires and various cities across the United States. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Turn to the Stars is her first book.
Edited by Lucy K Shaw & Kristen Felicetti
Cover art & design by Kylie Alexander
Illustrations by Alison Tusick
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