First published 2021
Chloe Aridjis gathers her scattered pieces into one volume. The Mexican author, known for Book of Clouds, Asunder, and Sea Monsters, presents stories and essays that blur boundaries between waking and sleeping states. Characters drift through twilight hours as flâneuses of dusk and dawn. The pieces move between fable and innovation, between dreamy meditation and careful observation. Aridjis writes with attention to both natural ecosystems and the inner workings of the mind. Her prose plays with language itself, finding joy in words and their unexpected combinations. These texts arrive like messages from sleep, conversations held with figures who exist at the edge of consciousness. The collection reveals an author equally skilled in brief forms as in her celebrated novels. Each piece lingers in memory after reading ends, carrying the weight of dreams that refuse to fade with morning light.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, magical-realism, surreal
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: blurred-boundaries, dreamlike, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mexico
Period: 21st-century
280 pages · Paperback · House Sparrow Press