A novel by Daniel Saldaa Pars, translated byChristina MacSweeney

October 13, 2020 5 x 8.25 176 pages 978-1-56689-596-5

A neurotic young man, self-confined to his bed, reflects on the turning point of his childhood: his mothers disappearance.

Folding and refolding origami frogs, extracting the symmetrical veins from leaves, retreating to an imaginary world in his closet: after Teresa walked out the door one July afternoon in 1994, her son filled the void she left with a series of unusual rituals. Twenty-three years later, he lies in bed, reconstructing the events surrounding his mothers disappearance. Did she actually join the Zapatistas in the jungles of Chiapas, as he was led to believe? He dissects his memories of that fateful summer until a startling discovery shatters his conception of his family. Daniel Saldaa Pars (Among Strange Victims) returns with an emotionally rich anti-coming-of-age novel that wrestles with the inherited privileges and atrocities of masculinity.

About the Author

Daniel Saldaa Pars is an essayist, poet, and novelist born in Mexico City. His first novel, Among Strange Victims, published to critical acclaim in 2016, was a finalist for the Best Translated Book Award. He has been a fellow at Union des crivaines et des crivains Qubcois, the Omi International Arts Center, The Banff Centre, and The MacDowell Colony. His work has appeared in BOMB!, Guernica, LitHub.com, Electric Literature, The Guardian, El Pas, and on KCRWs Unfictional, among others. In 2017 he was named by the Hay Festival as one of the best Latin-American writers under the age of 40.

Christina MacSweeney was awarded the 2016 Valle Incln Translation Prize for her translations of Valeria Luisellis The Story of My Teeth, and her translations of Daniel Saldaa Parss novel Among Strange Victims was a finalist in the 2017 Best Translated Book Award. In 2017 she published a translation of Elvira Navarros A Working Woman, followed in 2018 by Empty Set (Vernica Gerber Bicecci), and Tomb Song and The House of the Pain of Others (Julin Herbert), all of which have received critical acclaim. Her work has also been included in various anthologies of Latina American Literature. Christina also collaborated with Vernica Gerber Bicecci on the bilingual book Palabras migrantes / Migrant Words. Her translations of Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino (Julin Herbert) On Lighthouses, a book-length essay by Jazmina Barrera, and Elvira Navarros short story collection Rabbit Island are forthcoming in 2020.

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