Sofia Segovia Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Sofia Segovia is a Mexican author best known for writing historical fiction and fantasy novels. Segovia went to the University of Monterrey, where she studied Communication as she intended to become a journalist. However, she soon discovered that there are many other ways to write. Upon graduation, she worked as a communication and image coordinator for local political campaigns and as a ghostwriter. She has also written scripts for an amateur theater and worked as a coordinator for literary workshops. Some of her students have gone on to publish their own fiction works. Growing up, she always loved reading and remembers reading the likes of “Five Find Outers” by Enid Blyton and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.” Her favorite novel was “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling, which she read in Spanish as “El libro de las tierras vírgenes.” She would open any page in the novel and read it backward and forward anytime she needed some catharsis. Her first copy of the novel belonged to her mother who gifted it to her. She published her first novel “Night of the Hurricane” in 2010 before she went on to write the popular and critically acclaimed novel “El Mumullo De Las Abejas “translated into English as “The Murmur of Bees.”

Given the critical acclaim of “The Murmur of Bees,” Segovia was deemed the biggest literary discovery from Mexico in recent times. Her novel would make the bestselling lists in Mexico and several Spanish speaking markets and iTunes named it novel of the year. The novel has already been reprinted ten times and was published in English by Amazon Crossings in 2019. It has been praised by reviewers from the likes of Booklist, Bookriot, and the Washington Post. Sofia Segovia made the list of most successful people on the annual lists by the UDEM and El Norte newspapers. She was named one of the 31 most influential Mexican women by WHO magazine. The remake of her novel “Huracan” has been republished in Spain, the United States, and her native Mexico. She published “Peregrinos” otherwise known as Pilgrims in 2018 to critical acclaim. The novel made the list of Grupo Reforma’s best novels of 2018. Sofia lives in Monterrey with her husband and children though she travels a lot researching her novels.

Sofia Segovia’s novels show a concern for the expression of a different point of view from the one commonly held. In “The Murmur of the Bees” she writes about farmers who are the protagonists during a revolution. They also happen to be landowners from the northeast which means they are generally ignored and thought to be elitist. Segovia writes a novel documenting the experiences Of the Morales Cortes family during a time of political revolution of change. It also tells of their challenges raising up and living with their specially gifted child Simonopio, who talks to bees about the future. In “Pilgrims,” her protagonists tell the story of Arno and Schipper, two German children who embark on a harrowing journey across Europe during World War II. Just like in “The Murmur of the Bees” her German victims are not people generally considered victims. Sofia has asserted that the characters in Pilgrims are real people that she had the opportunity to meet while living in Mexico. In “Hurracan,” she showcases the realistic and deeply Mexican world set in the time of the Mexican Revolution. In the novel she tells of the conflict between politics, the forces of nature and men in a style and language radically different from novels of the time. Through her novels, Sofia establishes herself as one of the best prose writers of the Mexican tradition. Her training in communication and writing of musical comedy scripts, theater, comedy, and political speeches, gave her an exceptional gift for portraying the Latin American reality.

“The Murmur of the Bees” is a beguiling novel from one of the best Mexican fiction authors. Her first novel ever to be translated into English, it is the story of a specially gifted child that could change the trajectory of a family living in a country poised for a revolution. Old Nana Reja had found the baby left to die under a bridge covered in a blanket of bees and disfigured beyond what anybody had ever seen. The child named Simonopio is believed by the locals to be a baby kissed by evil spirits given his disfigurement and circumstances of his discovery near death. But he is adopted by the Morales family who cares and brings him up like he is one of their own. As he is growing up, he becomes a source of wonderment to everyone in his family, given his special visions of both the dangerous and beautiful future. His purpose in the small town of Linares will become evident in time though at present he lives a bizarre life telling his family of dangers to their lives and livelihoods. The novel is set in 1918, on the verge of the Mexican Revolution and the devastation Spanish Flu. It tells of the destiny of a family that has decided to put their future, love, and faith in the unbelievable at a time when their country is in flux.

Sofia Segovia’s “Huracan” stars Aniceto Mora el Regalado, a character that is similar to Simonopio since he was abandoned by his family. He was born to an unscrupulous father in a family full of resentment and misery. His family abandons him and he has to live out his childhood in between disdain for adults and biting poverty. He decides to leave Cozumel Island and go make a new life for himself on the mainland. His fate is marked by hard luck as a third-person omniscient narrator tells of his misfortunes and eventual return to Cozumel for a reunion with a past he wants to forget. The town is hit by a catastrophic hurricane that parallels the story and life of the lead characters. The huge storm has dire consequences for the island’s citizens, tourism and economy. The author tackles the theme of betrayal, human pain and resentment, and bitterness against an individual that is born into a social class that meant that he never had the opportunity to live up to his potential. Every page tells of the dizzying breakdown of the character, whose life seems to attract the very worst.

“Pilgrims” by Sofia Segovia is a tale of two German children Arno Schipper and llse Hahlbrock that flee from the terrors of World War II alongside many other Prussians. Their homeland is about to disappear and while they come from different regions, their paths soon leave them to the same place. Prussia had been a separate entity from Germany though it could not escape from the bombs and nationalist fervor that had swept through them both. Hahlbrock and Schipper are two children who decide to go on a pilgrimage to find what the future holds for them in new lands. They are running away from death, hunger, and destruction though they are for the most part driven by hope for reunion and peace. They also hope to find a new place where they can set down roots and live in peace. Pilgrims is a deeply touching novel that reflects on unavoidable destiny and the overlapping roads that humans take to the same place. Through the eyes of the most unlikely of victims, Sofia gives a completely different and exhilarating perspective of the most deadly conflict in history.

2 Responses to “Sofia Segovia”

1. Ursel Irwin: 1 year ago

   Please let me know whether
   1. “The Pilgrims” really is the novel “Tears of Amber” in English? I read it, and it is actually very close to my own family’s history.
   2. When will “Tears of Amber” be translated into German. I have many friends who want to read it. We all are children of that era.
   Thank you Ursel Irwin

   Reply
   • Graeme: 1 year ago

     Yes I believe that is the translated version of Peregrinos. Not sure about when it will be translated to German

     Reply