Three Novels

‘Language itself seems to be invested with a strange demiurgic force. Herrera’s style – both precise and elusive, specific and elliptical – is uncannily well suited to depict the in-between state his characters inhabit.’ Tony Wood, LRB ---- 'Herrera shuns proper names of people and places: Mexico City is the “Big Chilango,” characters bear names such as the Artist, the Witch, and Mr. Q. His ghostly landscapes are reminiscent of Rulfo’s in the iconic novel Pedro Páramo, but his characters are even more ethereal. Many are up to no good, delivering packages whose contents we can only guess at, trying to avoid falling into vast sinkholes and the jails of La Migra. The bad guys speak as if in a Peckinpah film. [...] The [three novels are] even more powerful read together. A welcome gathering of centrifugal works by one of Mexico’s most accomplished contemporary writers.' Kirkus Reviews, starred review