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.
“[de la Cerda's] tactics succeed in creating the enchanting feeling that one is sitting across from each narrator, being told their stories as a close confidante. . . . The author’s demand that we bear witness to the senseless murders, in all their gruesomeness, of these bright young women is sobering and commendable.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Dahlia de la Cerda is the armed wing of morras who write, the long-awaited apostle of morras who help morras. Barrio counterwriting, misoprostol mixed with weed, narcocorrido tweets, a fuckload of violence, Dahlia’s books are all or nothing—luxury literature that is proletarian, radical, and carnal for our era of idiots and cowards.” —Gabriela Wiener, author of Undiscovered
“This book has the force of an ocean gully: it sucks you in, drags you through the mud, and then cleanses you.” —Andrea Abreu, author of Dogs of Summer
“I couldn’t put this book down! Equal parts punk, brilliant, and urgent, with a side of Mexican goth. Dahlia de la Cerda’s blend of raw, at times brutal storytelling is exactly what we need right now. A force on its own that refuses to be tamed, the writing here is a literary gift.”—Julián Delgado Lopera, author of Fiebre Tropical
“The brutal, fascinating, and truthful stories in Reservoir Bitches describe, without indulgence, the highly complex reality of young women in Mexico.” —Berna González Harbour, El País
“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
“A small monument to transgressive literature, hard, soft, romantic, and painful.” —Gerardo Lima Molina, Tierra Adentro
“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, Mundiario
About the Author
Dahlia de la Cerda is a writer and activist based in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She is the author of Perras de Reserva, which won the 2019 Premio Nacional de Cuento Joven Comala, and Desde los Zulos. She is also the cofounder of the feminist organization Morras Help Morras. Reservoir Bitches is her English-language debut.
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 recognized by English PEN, the National Book Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and is the author of The Translator’s Visibility: Scenes from Contemporary Latin American Fiction.
