"She was left to wander the hills and play at being an alchemist."

July 31, 2020 10:25 PM

Matthew Gleeson (LA Review of Books, 6/26/2020), "... Remembering Amparo Dávila": "She made a name for herself as a writer in Mexico in the 1950s and 1960s, then fell out of sight sometime after the 1970s, only to be rediscovered and lauded, at the beginning of the new millennium, as one of the country's great masters of the short story." Several of Amparo Dávila's stories are available online: "The Houseguest" (audio in Spanish), "The Tomb Garden," "Oscar" (related waltzes), "The Breakfast" (related song), and "The Cell." Interviews with the author in Spanish and the translators in English. Relevant 2018 Worldcon panel on women writing horror in Mexico (plus the free Mexicanx Initiative SF anthology, A Larger Reality, still at Dropbox).
posted by Wobbuffet (3 comments total)

I only first heard of Dávila a few months ago, via Cristina Rivera Garza's strange novel The Iliac Crest in which she features as a character (as two characters, I suppose). I'd subsequently read 'The Houseguest' and 'The Cell' but not yet the other tales linked here that I'm keen now to try: many thanks for the post, Wobbuffet.
posted by misteraitch at 12:04 AM on August 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thank you so much for putting this together.
posted by vacapinta at 12:34 PM on August 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

"El Huésped" en español.

Thanks for posting... I wasn't familiar with Dávila!
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:56 PM on August 2, 2020 [1 favorite]