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Wishbone by Laia Jufresa
** This link is for U.S. orders only. If you’re located elsewhere, please write us through our contact page. Thanks!Tor Sima is the founder of the International Museum of Color in Oaxaca. Vica Luft is a secretary and single mother in Edinburgh. Disparate as their lives are, they mirror and inform one another in striking ways: an early trauma, a shared lover, an affinity for the octopus. Moving backward in time across two decades and seven cities, Wishbone quietly unravels what ties them together and what sets them apart. This is a captivating story about motherhood and friendship, art and commerce, selfhood and loss; about the parts of us that go missing when a loved one disappears, and the tentacular bonds forged by the families we create.
Laia Jufresa’s first book written in English, Wishbone is dreamy and precise, insightful and thrilling: a work of lived-in magic with a colorful cast of irresistible characters, a dazzlingly inventive structure, and a stunning final revelation.
Advance praise for Wishbone
Everything is alive in Laia Jufresa’s breathtaking Wishbone. People, objects, landscapes are equally imbued with a force that ripples across timelines and connects us deeply to this enchanted and disenchanted world full of unforgettable characters. A tour de force of a novel from one of the most charming and original voices of my generation. — Valeria Luiselli, author of Beginning Middle End
In Wishbone, Laia Jufresa constructs a dazzling narrative architecture: a novel that moves backward in time while revealing, with relentless precision, the forces that sustain and fracture a life. Its structure invites the reader to unspool a secret rather than follow a plot. Laia Jufresa takes color to its furthest consequences, turning it into memory and wound—a powerful meditation on art, loss, and creation. — Fernanda Trías, author of Pink Slime
I admire the rare combination of literary experiment with great warmth for the world, characters, art, cities, and landscapes. Wishbone is kaleidoscopic and friendly, elegantly brilliant on art and artists while deeply committed to love in all its messy, human forms. Laia Jufresa writes beautifully. — Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
Laia Jufresa does what writers are supposed to do: highlight the strangeness of a very old world. Wishbone is a beautiful book that grabs your eyes and holds on to them so that you can experience new ways of seeing the pleasures and misdeeds of our present. — Yuri Herrera, author of Season of the Swamp
This is it, the novel that proves there is no one writing like Jufresa today: with the insight to build a truly international, motley cast; the pluck and playfulness to plunge us into meandering, teasing structures; and the heart to shine a warm light over lives touched by all kinds of loss. The depth of this novel’s understanding will leave you as breathless as its revelations. — Sophie Hughes, award-winning translator from Spanish and Italian
I never wanted to reach the last page of Wishbone. Enchanting and thought-provoking, Laia Jufresa’s unforgettable novel presents vivid portrayals of complicated characters confronting artistic aspirations, emotional entanglements, and loss. The color-rich world that Jufresa presents spans decades and continents and is so exquisitely written and stylishly plotted that it absolutely seduced me. I cannot wait to read it again and to ponder its meanings with fellow readers. I doubt there could be a better novel published in English in 2026. — Lori Feathers, writer and bookseller, Interabang Books (Dallas)
** This link is for U.S. orders only. If you’re located elsewhere, please write us through our contact page. Thanks!Tor Sima is the founder of the International Museum of Color in Oaxaca. Vica Luft is a secretary and single mother in Edinburgh. Disparate as their lives are, they mirror and inform one another in striking ways: an early trauma, a shared lover, an affinity for the octopus. Moving backward in time across two decades and seven cities, Wishbone quietly unravels what ties them together and what sets them apart. This is a captivating story about motherhood and friendship, art and commerce, selfhood and loss; about the parts of us that go missing when a loved one disappears, and the tentacular bonds forged by the families we create.
Laia Jufresa’s first book written in English, Wishbone is dreamy and precise, insightful and thrilling: a work of lived-in magic with a colorful cast of irresistible characters, a dazzlingly inventive structure, and a stunning final revelation.
Advance praise for Wishbone
Everything is alive in Laia Jufresa’s breathtaking Wishbone. People, objects, landscapes are equally imbued with a force that ripples across timelines and connects us deeply to this enchanted and disenchanted world full of unforgettable characters. A tour de force of a novel from one of the most charming and original voices of my generation. — Valeria Luiselli, author of Beginning Middle End
In Wishbone, Laia Jufresa constructs a dazzling narrative architecture: a novel that moves backward in time while revealing, with relentless precision, the forces that sustain and fracture a life. Its structure invites the reader to unspool a secret rather than follow a plot. Laia Jufresa takes color to its furthest consequences, turning it into memory and wound—a powerful meditation on art, loss, and creation. — Fernanda Trías, author of Pink Slime
I admire the rare combination of literary experiment with great warmth for the world, characters, art, cities, and landscapes. Wishbone is kaleidoscopic and friendly, elegantly brilliant on art and artists while deeply committed to love in all its messy, human forms. Laia Jufresa writes beautifully. — Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
Laia Jufresa does what writers are supposed to do: highlight the strangeness of a very old world. Wishbone is a beautiful book that grabs your eyes and holds on to them so that you can experience new ways of seeing the pleasures and misdeeds of our present. — Yuri Herrera, author of Season of the Swamp
This is it, the novel that proves there is no one writing like Jufresa today: with the insight to build a truly international, motley cast; the pluck and playfulness to plunge us into meandering, teasing structures; and the heart to shine a warm light over lives touched by all kinds of loss. The depth of this novel’s understanding will leave you as breathless as its revelations. — Sophie Hughes, award-winning translator from Spanish and Italian
I never wanted to reach the last page of Wishbone. Enchanting and thought-provoking, Laia Jufresa’s unforgettable novel presents vivid portrayals of complicated characters confronting artistic aspirations, emotional entanglements, and loss. The color-rich world that Jufresa presents spans decades and continents and is so exquisitely written and stylishly plotted that it absolutely seduced me. I cannot wait to read it again and to ponder its meanings with fellow readers. I doubt there could be a better novel published in English in 2026. — Lori Feathers, writer and bookseller, Interabang Books (Dallas)