Humo
The nameless protagonist of Smoke inhabits an apocalyptic Monterrey. Crime and murder have reached such an apex that the city now has an organization both sinister and necessary: the Cadaver Collection Service of the Northeast, responsible for eliminating the unclaimed bodies that pile up in the streets amid the population’s growing indifference.
Shaken by the disappearance of his wife Emma, the protagonist decides to abandon his academic career for a new job in the body-collection service. His greatest fear is that her body will become just another statistic, just another life snuffed out in the flames of the Oven: the vast crematorium that presides over the city like an ominous god.
Smoke is a harsh, keen metaphor for contemporary Mexico, a requiem for the inhabitants of this industrial city who are literally devoured by it. In this fable, fiction feels all too close to reality.
Efrén Ordóñez has achieved what no longer seemed possible: he has found a new way to narrate the horror that surrounds us, and to pull us deeper into it. After all, the truly unforgivable thing would be to keep looking away.
Bernardo Esquinca
Audio book in Spanish (click here)
Gris infierno
Translated as Gray Inferno, this is short story collection depicting the horrors of a Northern Mexico industrial city (maybe Monterrey). The book was published by An.Alfa.Beta, an iconic regiomontana press. Two of the stories, translated by Robin Myers, can be found in this website.
Tlacuache
This is an illustrated children’s book that tells the story of the the possum as a mythical pre-hispanic animal that is said to have given (or stolen back) fire to the Human race. The book is part of Fondo Cultural Armella Spitalier’s Axolótl collection and it was illustrated by the wonderful Catalina Carvajal.
