Todo pueblo es cicatriz / Every Town Is a Scar

\”Hiram Ruvalcaba posee una destreza implacable para fraguar tramas inquietantes y combinar herencias que van del true crime y el gotico sureno a la cronica latinoamericana o lo rulfiano y arreolesco, pero su escritura es tambien algo mas: un conmovedor testimonio de la masculinidad del siglo xxi intentando dialogar con sus demonios sin hipocresia y, de ser posible, sin miedo.\” -Julian Herbert

En 1996, Sagrario murio baleada en la entrada de su residencia; los disparos alertaron a los vecinos, incluyendo a Hiram, el hijo mayor de la familia Ruvalcaba, de apenas ocho anos. Poco despues, en el ano 2000, tambien a Rocio le arrebataron la vida de forma violenta: fue asesinada y sepultada a medias en la sala de su casa. En 2005, la frontera simbolica entre un asesinato noticioso, anonimo, y el de alguien consanguineo termino por quebrarse. El Jalisco rural y semiurbano se habia convertido en una tolvanera de cadaveres, y uno de ellos era el del tio Antonio Ruvalcaba.

Tres asesinatos, apenas tres muertes entre todas esas que no somos capaces de contabilizar ni de reconocer. A partir de ellas, Hiram Ruvalcaba entreteje una impresionante novela debut que, desde la autoficcion, lo posiciona como digno heredero de la tradicion literaria de las tierras de Rulfo y Arreola.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

\”Hiram Ruvalcaba is skilled at crafting unsettling plots and combining influences that range from true crime and Southern Gothic to Latin American chronicle, Juan Rulfo and Juan Jose Arreola. But his writing is also more than that: It is a moving testimony to twenty-first century masculinity and an attempt to face one’s demons head on, without hypocrisy or, if possible, fear.\” – Julian Herbert

In 1996, Sagrario was shot to death outside his home. His neighbors rushed to the scene, including 8-year-old Hiram, the eldest of the Ruvalcaba children. Just four years later, in 2000, Rocio too died a violent death, murdered and half buried in her living room. Finally, in 2005, the symbolic border between unknown, sensationalist killer and blood relative collapses as the body count rises in rural and suburban Jalisco, with Hiram’s uncle, Antonio Ruvalcaba, among the victims.

Three murders, among countless others that have left a death toll too high to process. Hiram Ruvalcaba uses them as the starting point for this impressive debut, an autobiographical novel that positions him as a worthy heir to a Mexican literary tradition founded by masters such as Rulfo and Arreola.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 232
Imprint: Penguin Random House Grupo Editoria
Publication date: 05/12/2023