Behind the Gate
Will be published approx. on 13. October 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
128 pages
978-0-8112-4058-1 (ISBN)
Description
Written in sharp, impressionistic prose steeped in horror, Amparo Davila's stories are tiny nightmares come to life. She is a writer obsessed with obsession, who shows, sometimes in just a few pages, that the narrow line between sanity and madness is even finer than it had seemed at first glance, and that anyone could be one false move away from their doom. Gothic, dark, surrealist, atmospheric, this newly translated selection from the author of the global sensation The Houseguest "casts a delightful and disconcerting spell" (Los Angeles Times).
Reviews / Votes
"Each of these stories is equal parts Hitchcock film and razor blade: austere, immaculately crafted, profoundly unsettling, and capable of cutting you. Amparo Davila is Kafka by way of Ogawa, Aira by way of Carrington, Cortazar by way of Somers, and I'm so grateful she's in translation." -- Carmen Maria Machado "Readers of Davila's stories find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to forget them." -- Margaret Randall - World Literature Today "Extraordinary." -- Julio CortazarMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 131 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8112-4058-1 (9780811240581)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Amparo Davila was born in Mexico in 1928. She published several collections of short stories and for a short time worked as Alfonso Reye's secretary. In recent years a massive resurgence of interest has acknowledged her as one of Mexico's finest masters of the short story. Award the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize in 19977, she was honored with the Medalla Bellas Artes in 2015 Matthew Gleeson is a writer, translator, and co-editor of Writing Across the Landscape: Travel Journals 1960-2010 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. A former Mellon Public Scholar, Audrey Harris holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures from the University of California, Los Angeles.