an exuberant el mundo debut novel about a family of cursed women in the tradition of laura esquivels like water for chocolate the laguna women suffer from an odd affliction each generation is condemned to tragic love affairs and to only give birth to girls who are unable to escape the cruel fate of their mothers one fateful hunting season in their small castilian town a young landowner arrives and begins a passionate affair with clara laguna the latest in the family line daughter of a oneeyed woman known as the laguna witch he leaves her pregnant with yet another daughter but the seeds of change are sown eventually the longawaited son santiago the greatgreat grandson of clara is born a window of hope is opened but is the curse truly over full of memorable offbeat characters from a bearded mute female cook to the local dogooding priest to the laguna women themselves the house of impossible loves is a feat of imaginative storytelling that marks the arrival of a talented new novelist