La Obra / The Work - Paperback
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A book that breaks the silence. A unique narrative voice that describes the power dynamics of this organization from within and with irony.
Marina has a role assigned to her from Eternity: to become a saint according to the guidelines of Opus Dei and to devote herself totally to the institution. However, it is not easy for this young woman to reconcile celibacy and the strict demands of her divine vocation with the problems of any other millennial: the crisis of adolescence, job insecurity, and an urgent need to get the exact Meg Ryan haircut. Born into a family linked to the organization, the protagonist of The Work discovers the world around her with an innocent gaze, but as she grows up and the clashes between the outside world and her beliefs intensify, her personality becomes dissociated between her real self and her Opus self, forcing her to live between two irreconcilable worlds. In this non-fiction coming-of-age story, the author portrays in first person how Opus Dei works from the inside through everyday episodes and ironically shows the manipulation, psychological abuse, and consequences of her twenty-five-year experience immersed in the ecosystem of this ultra-Catholic group. "The numerary encourages you to encourage your friends to join the club and encourages you to pray more, fight more, try harder, and write down your sins as a child in a notebook...
My little diary from when I was ten or eleven has Winnie the Pooh with his famous honey pot on the cover... When Dad brings honey from Ahedo del Butrón, the village in Burgos where we spend our summers, I lick my lips like Winnie. Then, I examine my conscience at night sitting on my bed and write down that 'I have been gluttonous' because I ate three pieces of bread with honey for my snack, instead of the two I had promised Jesus. Not only am I going to get fat, which is not so important (after all, that would be vanity), but I have failed God in that small, very small mortification that I could do at the age of ten to collaborate with redemption. The numeraries of the club were not terrifying, far from it. They were girls between twenty and thirty years old, celibate, and lively, who spent their afternoons making plans for us: they were what I aspired to be, they were what God had asked them to be, and although they had given their lives to God, they did not resemble nuns, but rather their style was more like that of Maria Pombo."
La Obra / The Work - Paperback
$23.95
Sale price
$23.95
Regular price
by Marina Pereda (Author)
Un libro que rompe el silencio. Una voz narrativa única que describe desde dentro y con ironía las dinámicas de poder de esta organización.
Marina tiene un papel asignado desde la Eternidad: hacerse santa según las directrices del Opus Dei y entregarse totalmente a la institución. Sin embargo, para esta joven no es fácil compatibilizar el celibato y las estrictas exigencias de su vocación divina con los problemas de cualquier otra milenial: la crisis de la adolescencia, la precariedad laboral y una necesidad imperiosa de conseguir el corte de pelo exacto de Meg Ryan.
A book that breaks the silence. A unique narrative voice that describes the power dynamics of this organization from within and with irony.
Marina has a role assigned to her from Eternity: to become a saint according to the guidelines of Opus Dei and to devote herself totally to the institution. However, it is not easy for this young woman to reconcile celibacy and the strict demands of her divine vocation with the problems of any other millennial: the crisis of adolescence, job insecurity, and an urgent need to get the exact Meg Ryan haircut. Born into a family linked to the organization, the protagonist of The Work discovers the world around her with an innocent gaze, but as she grows up and the clashes between the outside world and her beliefs intensify, her personality becomes dissociated between her real self and her Opus self, forcing her to live between two irreconcilable worlds. In this non-fiction coming-of-age story, the author portrays in first person how Opus Dei works from the inside through everyday episodes and ironically shows the manipulation, psychological abuse, and consequences of her twenty-five-year experience immersed in the ecosystem of this ultra-Catholic group. "The numerary encourages you to encourage your friends to join the club and encourages you to pray more, fight more, try harder, and write down your sins as a child in a notebook...
My little diary from when I was ten or eleven has Winnie the Pooh with his famous honey pot on the cover... When Dad brings honey from Ahedo del Butrón, the village in Burgos where we spend our summers, I lick my lips like Winnie. Then, I examine my conscience at night sitting on my bed and write down that 'I have been gluttonous' because I ate three pieces of bread with honey for my snack, instead of the two I had promised Jesus. Not only am I going to get fat, which is not so important (after all, that would be vanity), but I have failed God in that small, very small mortification that I could do at the age of ten to collaborate with redemption. The numeraries of the club were not terrifying, far from it. They were girls between twenty and thirty years old, celibate, and lively, who spent their afternoons making plans for us: they were what I aspired to be, they were what God had asked them to be, and although they had given their lives to God, they did not resemble nuns, but rather their style was more like that of Maria Pombo."
Author Biography
Marina Pereda (Miranda de Ebro, 1989) estudiÃ3 ComunicaciÃ3n Audiovisual y es màster en Arte, Literatura y Pensamiento. Ahora reside en Barcelona.
Number of Pages: 272
Dimensions: 0.82 x 8.49 x 5.59 IN
Publication Date: August 18, 2026