Fresh Dirt from the Grave by Giovanna Rivero (Author), Isabel Adey (Translator)
Giovanna Rivero is one of the most important Bolivian authors out there. Born in the city of Montero, Santa Cruz, she has several short stories and novels to her name. Awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 2006, she was selected by the Guadalajara Book Fair as one of the 25 upcoming stars of Latin American literature in 2011.
I believe this is her debut collection of stories in translation, and I cannot be more thrilled to present this book (named the best short story collection in our country in 2021) to you.
Why read Fresh Dirt from the Grave?
Because she is one of the most prominent gothic writers in Latin America, that′s why.
Wait, Gothic literature in Latin America?
That’s right! There has been a frenzy in that particular genre South of the continent, and the mixture of horror literature and science fiction is regarded as an immense contribution to the renovation of the fantastic genre in Latin America.
I thought you writers did Magical Realism.
Well, the Boom Latin American writers used to. That was more than fifty years ago, and they were mostly male (as misogynistic as they were amazing in their use of the marvelous and the impossible). We are talking predominantly female writers here, as good as Mary Shelley, better than Mary Shelley even, as their use of horror is rooted in deeply disturbing new things: chemical warfare, drug overuse, femicide, and just pure, classic horror, without the monsters.
Take this book for example. There is possession (of a kind), there are a lot of scientific experiments gone wrong, there are ancient curses hidden inside eggs, there is origami, and there are amusing reflections about choir practice. In sum, there is a lot of weird fiction happening.
So, this is where contemporary horrors and ancient terrors meet.
That’s right! In this book, there are all kinds of happenings, occurring all over the world: a man recounts how he survived a shipwreck at sea; a mad aunt haunts her family; two Bolivian children are left on the outskirts of a Metis reservation outside Winnipeg; and a Japanese widow teaches origami in a women’s prison for murderesses, to name a few.
“She stopped for a while, hands on hips, to survey her little kingdom of plants, undulating boughs and seeds that lurked in the infantile blindness of the soft soil. No one could understand the pride she felt upon observing the progress of her work. A little bud opening, a minuscule seedling that no one would notice but that was definitely there, with all the vigour of a new life. These were true works of origami, folded so carefully by a perfect, supreme deity, and, try as she might, she could never recreate all those folds and edges.”
There is a stark beauty inside each story, like a gem (like in Hearts in Atlantis). What you get to see inside the horror is the will to survive despite the cruelty of reality. The interweaving of folk tales, erotic musings, sci-fi, and violence is masterful, and, as you read, you will marvel at it, understanding that this is a new thing.
Here is an article talking about some of them: the authors behind it, and the upcoming spawns of this new artform, born as they are with amazing energy and ancient force.
Fresh Dirt from the Grave is available since June 20th, 2023.
Publish Date: June 20, 2023
Publisher: Charco Press
Pages: 155
Type: Paperback
EAN/UPC: 9781913867515
BISAC Categories: Literary Gothic Short Stories (single author) World Literature – South America (General)
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