The Stories of Eva Luna

The Stories of Eva Luna centers around a recurring motif of Eva Luna as a modern-day Scheherazade. Scheherazade is the talented storyteller and narrator of the classic frame story, One Thousand and One Nights. In that story, Scheherazade tells stories to a cruel king to save her life. In the process, she saves the lives of other women who might be forced to marry the king if he puts her to death. The king resists killing Scheherazade one day at a time because he is so enthralled by her storytelling. Thus her skilled use of language saves her life.

Eva Luna is not in imminent danger of dying in The Stories of Eva Luna, nor is Rolf a tyrant; in her case, Rolf has asked for stories because he wants the comfort of her words, to hear her speak. and to see her in her element. This collection of tales is also a frame story, like One Thousand and One Nights. The Prologue provides the opening for the frame, told from Rolf’s perspective as he asks Eva to tell a story. The final story, which is about Rolf, closes the frame and reinforces Eva’s role as Scheherazade: “I was present when she taught Rolf to pray, and when he distracted her with the stories I had told him in a thousand and one nights beneath the white mosquito netting of our bed” (266).