A debut linked story collection of gritty, streetwise, and wickedly funny fiction from Mexico.
Life’s a bitch. That’s why you gotta rattle her cage, even if she’s foaming at the mouth.
In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, thirteen Mexican women prod the bitch that is Life as they fight, sew, skirt, cheat, cry, and lie their way through their tangled circumstances. From the all-powerful daughter of a cartel boss to the victim of transfemicide, from a houseful of spinster seamstresses to a socialite who supports her politician husband by faking Indigenous roots, these women spit on their own reduction and invent new ways to survive, telling their stories in bold, unapologetic voices. At once social critique and black comedy, Reservoir Bitches is a raucous debut from one of Mexico’s most thrilling new writers.
Review
‘This book has the force of an ocean gully: it sucks you in, it drags you through the mud, and it cleans you in equal measure.’
-- Andrea Abreu, author of Panza de burro
‘A small monument to transgressive, tough, soft, romantic, painful literature … While the author beats us up, we revel in pleasure. Laughter. Because the prose is delicate despite everything. Because humour thrives among narco-socialites, contract killers, wannabe high society women, and influencers who worry about how many likes they have on Instagram.’
-- Gerardo Lima Molina, author of Megaloceros
‘The brutal, fascinating, and truthful stories in Reservoir Bitches describe, without self-indulgence, the highly complex reality of young women in Mexico.’
-- Berna González Harbour ― El País
‘Not only do these Reservoir Bitches not back down, but they also have the ability to laugh at themselves. Even in the most terrible moments, when as a reader you feel like you can’t breathe, the narrative voice knows how to make us smile, and even laugh out loud.’
-- Irma Gallo, Mexican cultural journalist and writer
‘It's been a long time since I’ve read a book like this: the kind that makes you feel like your chest is going to explode.’
-- María Teresa Priego-Broca, La Silla Rota
‘Dahlia de la Cerda’s work has become a reference point for its groundbreaking characters, for its fusion of expressionism and irony.’
-- Manuel García Pérez
Dahlia de la Cerda is a Mexican writer and activist. She has a BA in Philosophy and won the Comala Young National Short Story Award for Reservoir Bitches. She is also the author of the essay ‘Feminismo sin cuarto propio’, which is included in the anthology Tsunami 2, and co-founder of the feminist organisation Morras Help Morras. Her short story ‘The Smile’ was included in the first issue of Astra Magazine, and Reservoir Bitches is currently being developed as a series by Amazon Studios and Perro Azul.
Julia Sanches translates literature from Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan into English. Born in Brazil, she now lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Heather Cleary is an award-winning translator of poetry and prose whose work has been recognised by English PEN, the National Book Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others.
