A Petit Mal

When her young son is diagnosed with epilepsy, award-winning Colombian-American artist and poet Ana María Caballero, is devastated and hopelessly confused. As the long journey of healing commences, Caballero eschews traditional medicine and instead turns to a group of alternative healers she’s worked with before, whom she affectionately refers to as her army of “witch doctors.”

A PETIT MAL (Black Spring Press Group; 2023) narrates a powerful emotional journey as Caballero braids the story of her son, who loves soccer and refers to his episodes as “Messis,” with previous trauma—her father was treated for a brain injury and never woke up. Caballero grapples with the endless stream of advice she receives from those around her, from trying out strange treatments in Ecuador to investigating the color of her son’s aura.

She catalogs her weariness with traditional medical systems, which put her son through countless tests and employ a terminology as inaccessible as it is ridiculous. First opinions, second opinions, third opinions—Caballero bares it all in her uniquely poetic voice, haunting readers with the sheer weight on her shoulders, while weaving in happier moments as she attempts to faithfully record experience. Her suspense-filled story flows through the wings of hospitals and doctor’s offices, where she takes multi-faceted stabs at the nature of emotion, of illness, of health, of faith, of loss, stabs that elicit fresh meaning by mixing the muscle and marrow of words. 

Paired with incredibly sharp wit and even sharper writing, Caballero does not leave her reader wanting. A PETIT MAL illuminates the struggles countless families face when they must confront an often heartless healthcare system. But, told with her uniquely creative sense of humor, this story emerges as an example that even in times of great strife, love, laughter and art can provide solace.