Yuri Herrera

Drawing on science fiction, noir, and the philosophical parables of Jorge Luis Borges's Fictions and Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, this collection features fantastical stories in which monsters and aliens abound, but knowing who is the monster and who is the alien is a tricky proposition.

Makina, a young girl living in the Mexican-American border region and searching for her missing brother, faces nine legendary quests in a dangerous world.

A las siete de la mañana del 10 de marzo de 1920 se declaró un incendio en la mina El Bordo, en el estado mexicano de Hidalgo. Unas horas más tarde se dio por terminada la evacuación y se cerró el tiro de la mina para favorecer la extinción del incendio, previa declaración por parte de autoridades, médicos y representantes de la compañía minera. Seis días después se accedió de nuevo al interior para retirar los cadáveres: se calculaba...

"On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the Compañía de Santa Gertrudis -- the largest employer in the region, and a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company -- may have committed murder. The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that "no more than ten" men remained...

"In the court of the King, everyone knows their place. But as the Artist wins hearts and egos with his ballads, uncomfortable truths emerge that shake the kingdom to its core"--Page 4 of cover.

"New Orleans, 1853. A young exile named Benito Juárez disembarks at a fetid port city at the edge of a swamp. Years later, he will become the first indigenous head of state in the postcolonial Americas, but now he is as anonymous and invisible as any other migrant to the roiling and alluring city of New Orleans. Accompanied by a small group of fellow exiles who plot their return and hoped-for victory over the Mexican dictatorship, Juárez immerses...