The Houseguest: And Other Stories
Description
Like those of Kafka, Poe, Leonora Carrington, or Shirley Jackson, Amparo Dávila's stories are terrifying, mesmerizing, and expertly crafted--you'll finish each one gasping for air. With acute psychological insight, Dávila follows her characters to the limits of desire, paranoia, insomnia, and fear. She is a writer obsessed with obsession, who makes nightmares come to life through the everyday: loneliness sinks in easily like a razor-sharp knife, some sort of evil lurks in every shadow, delusion takes the form of strange and very real creatures. After reading The Houseguest--Dávila's debut collection in English--you'll wonder how this secret was kept for so long.
Product Details
Price
$14.95
$13.90
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
November 27, 2018
Pages
144
Dimensions
5.1 X 0.4 X 7.8 inches | 0.3 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811228213
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Amparo Dávila was born in Mexico in 1928. She has published numerous collections of short stories and for a time worked as Alfonso Reyes's secretary. In recent years a massive resurgence of interest has acknowledged her as one of Mexico's finest masters of the short story. She was awarded the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize in 1977 and honored with the Medalla Bellas Artes in 2015.
Matthew Gleeson is a writer and editor who has spent over a decade with City Lights Booksellers & Publishers.
A former Mellon Public Scholar, Audrey Harris holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from the University of California.
Reviews
Like a dream, Dávila's fictional realm is filled with signs and symbols, with hybrid creatures who appear to defy the laws of nature, and with characters who do not act according to logic or reason. Dávila has said in interviews that one of her favorite subjects is the mysterious, the unknown, that which is not within our grasp. Her writing is intentionally opaque and allows readers to draw a number of different interpretations; it is this intriguing, elusive quality that has perhaps led to her enduring popularity in Mexico.
The work of Amparo Dávila is unique in Mexican literature. There is no one like her, no one with that introspection and complexity.--Elena Poniatowska
Extraordinary.--Julio Cortázar
Like Poe for the new millennium.
Filled with nightmarish imagery and creeping dread, Dávila's stories plunge into the nature of fear: Terrifying.-- (07/09/2018)
For the first time, we finally have a collection of her stories translated into English and they're as good as, as uncanny and mesmerizing as, some of the best work by Kafka or Poe.--16 Books You Should Read This November
Mexico's high priestess of horror. The world Dávila imagines weighs on the brain like some sort of delirium.--Robert Rea
Each of these stories is equal parts Hitchcock film and razor blade: austere, immaculately crafted, profoundly unsettling, and capable of cutting you. Amparo Dávila is Kafka by way of Ogawa, Aira by way of Carrington, Cortazár by way of Somers, and I'm so grateful she's in translation.--Carmen Maria Machado
Dávila is a marvel, and this book casts a delightful and disconcerting spell.--Juan Vidal "Amparo Dávila's short stories are beautifully wrought nightmares "
Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Franz Kafka, and Edgar Allen Poe, Davila tests the limits of fiction.--The Houseguest and Other Stories by Amparo Dávila
Readers of Dávila's stories find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to forget them.--Margaret Randall
The Houseguest will make you paranoid; you will second guess every shadow and slight movement that catches your eye. Amparo Dávila's prose, her psychological awareness, and the beauty of her characters' misery is encompassing. I cannot believe that this is the first that I am experiencing Dávila in English.--Nick Buzanski
The work of Amparo Dávila is unique in Mexican literature. There is no one like her, no one with that introspection and complexity.--Elena Poniatowska
Extraordinary.--Julio Cortázar
Like Poe for the new millennium.
Filled with nightmarish imagery and creeping dread, Dávila's stories plunge into the nature of fear: Terrifying.-- (07/09/2018)
For the first time, we finally have a collection of her stories translated into English and they're as good as, as uncanny and mesmerizing as, some of the best work by Kafka or Poe.--16 Books You Should Read This November
Mexico's high priestess of horror. The world Dávila imagines weighs on the brain like some sort of delirium.--Robert Rea
Each of these stories is equal parts Hitchcock film and razor blade: austere, immaculately crafted, profoundly unsettling, and capable of cutting you. Amparo Dávila is Kafka by way of Ogawa, Aira by way of Carrington, Cortazár by way of Somers, and I'm so grateful she's in translation.--Carmen Maria Machado
Dávila is a marvel, and this book casts a delightful and disconcerting spell.--Juan Vidal "Amparo Dávila's short stories are beautifully wrought nightmares "
Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Franz Kafka, and Edgar Allen Poe, Davila tests the limits of fiction.--The Houseguest and Other Stories by Amparo Dávila
Readers of Dávila's stories find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to forget them.--Margaret Randall
The Houseguest will make you paranoid; you will second guess every shadow and slight movement that catches your eye. Amparo Dávila's prose, her psychological awareness, and the beauty of her characters' misery is encompassing. I cannot believe that this is the first that I am experiencing Dávila in English.--Nick Buzanski
