Books By Kathy Taylor

Name: The Birthing House
Author: Kathy Taylor
ISBN: 978-1962102247

The Birthing House

‘The Birthing House‘ is a novel of literary fiction that takes readers on a transformative journey of birth, healing, and the power of words. Written by acclaimed author Kathy Taylor, this captivating tale weaves together themes of memory, belonging, and the profound impact of personal choices.

At the heart of ‘The Birthing House’ lies the story of Clare Muller, a woman on a path of healing and self-discovery through her writing. Set against the backdrop of two distinct timelines, twenty years apart, the novel invites readers to embark on a captivating exploration of heart, mind, and body.

Through The Rearview Mirror

Inspired by informal conversations with Mexican taxi-drivers and developed through ethnographic research, this book is a collage of stories and voices from the streets and taxis of a provincial city in central Mexico. A profesora gringa rides in the back seat of taxis, learning about Mexican reality through the eyes of her cultural guides. Through the rearview mirror two worlds meet, and the professor sees reflected in the mirror new perspectives on her own culture to the north as well. The academic work turns into a novel, and the author becomes a character-passenger in the story that is written.

“I’ve been driving taxis for 23 years. I have lived some incredible stories, that if I told them, they would leave you with your mouth open and your eyes wide. If I were to write a journal, for example, people just wouldn’t believe it. They would say it was a novel.”

—a Mexican taxi-driver

Trees and other witnesses

Trees are silent witnesses to the passing of time, guardians of myth and memory, metaphors of life. Each of the stories in this collection has a tree of particular importance to its characters and their communities. These are tales of childhood and imagination, of migration and struggle, conflict and change. They are about specific places in Mexico, Nicaragua and the U.S., and real and imagined sites of cultural encounter, growth and adaptation. As the characters in these stories grapple with the forces of nature and the entanglements of human relationships, the trees are their companions and touchstones, reflecting, and at times shaping the experience of their lives.

Reviews

“Una escritora que no ofrece ninguno de los tradicionales consuelos de la novela o las memorias. Kathy Taylor es una turista que se plantea el problema de mirar de verdad, especialmente todo eso que no puede ser formulado. Su libro describe encuentros con muchos taxistas. Uno y otro y otro. Mil y uno. Pero estos hombres que ven pasar la vida por el espejo retrovisor, encuentran en Kathy Taylor un oído atento y una comprensión y una solidaridad que luego ella recupera en diálogos y descripciones de tierna belleza y profunda comprensión. Este es un libro de iniciación. Para aprender a vivir. Y Kathy Taylor es una escritora experta en hablar directamente al corazón humano.”
Gustavo Sainz Nov. 10, 2000

“A writer who doesn’t offer any of the traditional consolations of the novel or memoir. Kathy Taylor is a tourist who poses the problem of truly seeing, especially all that can’t be codified. Her book describes encounters with many taxi drivers. One after another and another. A thousand and one. But these men who see life pass by through the rearview mirror, find in Kathy Taylor an attentive ear and an empathy and solidarity that she later recovers in dialogues and descriptions of tender beauty and profound understanding. This is a book of initiation. To learn to live. And Kathy Taylor is an expert writer for speaking directly to the human heart.”