The latest addition to my website isYuri Herrera‘s La estación del pantano (Season of the Swamp). Future Mexican president Benito Juárez was exiled by president Antonio López de Santa Anna. Juárez and his companions end up in New Orleans. It is 1853. We know tthey were there for eighteen months but we know nothing of … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Luis Felipe Fabre‘s Declaración de las canciones oscuras (Recital of the Dark Verses). Saint John of the Cross/San Juan de la Cruz was a sixteenth century mystic and was revered by many but not well liked by the religious authorities because of his piety and asceticism. He had … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Caroline Lamarche‘s La Chienne de Naha [The Bitch of Naha] . The book opens with a tale from the Triqui people (in Mexico) about a bitch (i.e. a female dog) who changes into a woman and is exploited by a man. The book tells of an unnamed narrator … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Brenda Lozano‘s Brujas (Witches). We follow the story of three Mexican women. Paloma is, in fact, a muxe, assigned male at birth but who dresses and behaves in ways otherwise associated with women. She starts off as Gaspar, following the family tradition of being a curandero, a traditional … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Salvador Elizondo‘s El hipogeo secreto (The Secret Crypt). The novel is about a writer called Salvador Elizondo who is writing a book called The Secret Crypt. We start with a disparate group called Urkreis and we gradually learn that they are, possibly, the characters of this novel. Gradually, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Juan Pablo Villalobos‘ La invasión del pueblo del espíritu (Invasion of the Spirit People) . Set in an unnamed city but almost certainly Barcelona, this novel follows Gastón, an immigrant who runs a market garden. His friend Max, has a restaurant but he has lost his lease and … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Fernanda Melchor‘s Paradais (Paradais). The novel is set in an exclusive gated community in Mexico. The sixteen-year old Polo has dropped out of school but his mother has forced him to take a job at Paradais, where he has to clean up, garden and keep the place tidy, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sergio Pitol‘s El desfile del amor (Love Parade). Miguel del Solar is a forty year old Mexican living in England but visiting Mexico City. He has just written a history book on 1914/15 in Mexico and now plans to write one on 1942. His research reminds him that … Read more
< The latest addition to my website are two stories by Mario Bellatin. The first is a new translation of Salón de belleza (Beauty Salon) and the second an untranslated work Poeta ciego [Blind Poet]. The first tells of a beauty salon for women run by three cross-dressing, gay men. When an AIDS-like pandemic breaks ... Read more
The latest addition to my website is Javier Serena‘s Últimas palabras en la Tierra (Last Words on Earth). This is a fictionalised account of a novelist called Ricardo Funes who is based on the great Chilean novelist, Roberto Bolaño. We follow his struggles, firstly in Mexico and his involvement with what is called here negativism … Read more