''Miracle in Seville'' (

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

) is a novel by

James A. Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales ...

, the last to be released during his lifetime. ('' Recessional'', however, was the last to be completed.) In addition to his output of large, multigenerational novels, Michener was also a prolific journalist, traveling around the world and reporting on a variety of issues for peer-reviewed journals and sometimes for individual publication as novels,''Michener: A Writer's Journey'', Stephen May, University of Oklahoma Press, 2005 as was the case with ''

The Bridge at Andau ''The Bridge at Andau'' is a 1957 nonfiction book by the American author James Michener chronicling the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Living in Austria in the 1950s, Michener was at the border of Austria and Hungary during the period in which a ...

'' and ''

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

''. ''Miracle in Seville'' is just such a book. The tale is narrated by Shenstone, an American sports writer who is in Spain to research an article about a disgraced breeder of fighting bulls. He witnesses a miraculous intervention, and a conflict between the Virgin Mary and the fortune teller sister of a matador who may have cursed the rancher's herd.

Plot

The story draws on religious themes, interweaving gypsy traditions, belief in the intervening power of the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, and the hope of God's forgiveness and redemption, into the Spanish tradition of bullfighting. The action occurs during

Holy Week in Spain Semana Santa or Holy Week in Spain (; ; ; ; ; ) is the annual tribute of the Passion of Jesus Christ celebrated by Catholic religious Confraternity, brotherhoods (Spanish: cofradías) and confraternities that perform penitential processions on th ...

, and Michener competently captures the religious processions. He provides meticulous detail of bull fights (although some reviewers have taken umbrage at supposedly erroneous details in his narrative). The tale involves a

Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

matador (Lazaro López), his sister (Magdalena López) who reads fortunes, a cross-eyed Virgin Mary (La Bizca), the American writer (Shenstone), the Spanish bull breeder (Don Cayetano Mota) who is struggling to revive his once-famed herd, and of course the many bulls in Mota's herd. Despite his initial skepticism, the American is drawn into Mota's efforts, which involve fervent prayers to The Virgin and Herculean acts undertaken during Holy Week to prove his devotion and piety. He knows that his prayers will eventually be rewarded, and this knowledge allows him to live with the often-humiliating performance of his bulls in the arena vis-a-vis the arrogant Gómez. We learn that Lazaro López is also being aided by a powerful female, his sister, who may have the ability to curse the bulls that her brother must face. She is determined that her brother must prevail.

References

{{JamesAMichener 1995 American novels Novels by James A. Michener Random House books Novels set in Seville