Medea Sang Me a Corrido

A punk revival of Medea as a Mexican anti-angel of birth and death, from the International Booker Prize-nominated author of Reservoir Bitches.

In Northern Mexico, Paulina, Perla, Antonia, Reina, and Jordan are striving to survive the barrio - hustling on the edge of a cartel-run economy, nursing the wounds made normal in a world that eats its own. Hovering over their trials is a spirit with gothic flair, dressed in black and crowned with braids: Medea, a mythic mother of the Chihuahuan desert, ancient as the Aztecs but never too old to be petty.

From aiding a trophy girlfriend's abortion, to accompanying a mother in her search for her lost child in the desert, to embracing those taken too soon in the narco's brutal proxy wars, Medea fights for justice for her chosen mortals - her divine wrath the only power that could rival the corrupt, violent web spun by the cartel, the government, and the military. Dahlia de la Cerda's magnetic prose draws readers right into the heart of that web - and links all our fates to the missions of Medea, equal parts midwife and gravedigger, a femme fatale god in a femicidal world.



'Once again, de la Cerda has given us a collection of stories that is of devastating impact, one whose power slowly grows with each new voice that joins the chorus until the collective coalesces into a passage that absolutely takes you out at the kneecaps. This is a book rich with lineage and allusion, yet it is never quite so powerful as when it is reckoning with the simple cataclysm of a life cut short.'
-Joe Murray, Readings

'Only a novel this inventive and insane could help me understand the complexities of modern Mexico and capture every horror of womanhood. Propulsive and poetic. As sick as it is sexy and as feral as it is tender. I couldn't put it down.'
-Melissa Lozada-Oliva, author of Candelaria

'One of the most promising voices in recent Mexican literature.'
-Latin American Literature Today

• Format: Paperback / softback
• Pages: 112
• Imprint: Scribe Publications
• Supplier: Penguin Random House Distribution
• Subjects: Code FYT (scheme 12), Code FQ (scheme 12), Code FH (scheme 12), Code FF (scheme 12), Code FBA (scheme 93), Code FYT (scheme 93), Code FF (scheme 93), Code FH (scheme 93), Code FNM (scheme 93), Code 1KLCM (scheme 94), Mexican gothic fiction; cartel crime drama; feminist literary fiction Mexico; Chihuahuan desert mythology; magical realism Mexico; narco thriller book; mythic mother protagonist; Latin American punk novel; dark feminist mythology; borderlands survival story; anti-angel folklore; gritty barrio fiction; women's justice narrative; desert supernatural tale; contemporary Mexican literature; Booker Prize author; gothic desert spirits; violent power structures novel; feminist revenge story; Mexican Medea punk revival; Dahlia de la Cerda; International Booker Prize nominee; Reservoir Bitches; Chihuahuan desert myth; cartel violence fiction; feminist literature; gothic anti-angel; Latin American crime novel; narco proxy wars; femicide; goddess revenge story; modern Medea retelling; barrio survival; gritty literary fiction; abortion narrative; lost child search; divine justice; magical realism Mexico; dark contemporary fantasy; powerful female protagonist; high-impact prose