Dead Girls
Selva Almada author Annie McDermott translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Charco Press
Published:3rd Sep '20
Should be back in stock very soon
Author of International Booker Finalist Not a River
Internationally acclaimed author of Not a River , Selva Almada tackles the issue of gender violence in this hybrid work that follows in the tradition of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood or John Hersey's Hiroshima .Evoking with intimate first-hand knowledge the heat and dust of provincial Argentina, with all its secrets and conflicting loyalties, Almada tells the stories of three young women murdered in the early 1980s, as the country was celebrating its return to democracy. Three deaths that were never brought to justice and occurred long before the term 'femicide' became widely known: nineteen-year-old Andrea Danne, stabbed in her own bed; fifteen-year-old María Luisa Quevedo, raped, strangled, and dumped in wasteland; and twenty-year-old Sarita Mundín, whose disfigured body washed up on a river bank. In this brutal yet deeply important book, Selva Almada weaves these and other cases of violence against women into a clear-eyed, multi-faceted portrait that has global resonance.This is not a police chronicle, although there is an investigation. This is not a thriller, although there is mystery and suspense. Hard-hitting and lyrical, Almada blazes a new trail in journalistic fiction.
"Almada combines reportage, fiction, and autobiography to explore femicide in Argentina in her acute, unflinching latest." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"An unassuming yet intensely felt narrative. (4 stars)" —The Arts Desk
"Not an easy book, but it feels like an important one – a work of investigative writing about how easily women’s lives are obscured." —The Scotsman
"Part journalism, part history, part autobiography, part relentless nightmare." —Shelf Awareness, starred review
"Almada’s prose is sparse, but the details count. Her ear for dialogue and especially gossip is pitch perfect. Her eye for detail is hawkish." —LA Review of Books
"A powerful read, shedding a stark light on the horrors of gender violence." —The Big Issue
"You’ll walk away from this book with a vivid memory of where you were, how you were feeling, and what the weather was like on the day that you read Dead Girls." —Books and Bao
"This is not a book that will make you feel at peace with the world, but that is precisely where its strength and persuasion lie." —Translating Women
"The literary quality of the text shines." —Sound and Vision
"This is a powerful read...[Almada's] effective use of fiction ensures a deep empathy in her readers which strict reportage sometimes fails to evoke." —The Big Issue
"The prose strikes a perfect tone – clinical and punchy when necessary, angry and lyrical, brutal yet humanistic." —TN2
"Challenge[s] the true crime obsession in an indirect way. " —Pendora Magazine
"What makes the book compelling is how the author explores issues of domestic violence, state complicity, machismo and family negligence, along with class and social inequalities, in a non-sentimental prose which is all the more effective as result." —Morning Star
"Genre-defying, with beautifully crafted and reflective prose." —The F Word
"The devastating conclusion of the narrator is that the women who survive are unlikely to have made it unscathed but they are lucky ones – lucky to be alive." —NB Magazine
"It is a profound novel and call to action still relevant as activists continue to take to the streets throughout Latin America to decry, ‘ni una más’ (not one more)." —The Skinny
"It’s crisp, bracing, and beautiful." —White Review
"Part coming-of-age, part detective work, partly a web of rumors, Almada’s story fuses a variety of genres to create a work that splits the seams of personal narrative, journalism, and fiction." —NACLA
"Exquisite prose that vibrates with a deep, melodious rage." —The Monthly Booking
"Recounted with a lyrical simplicity that is almost brutal." —The Oxonian Review
"Painstakingly investigated ... imbued with personal connection" —The Oxonian Review
"Fate has in Dead Girls the perfume of a Greek tragedy: immutable, irreversible, lethal." —El País
"Far from the detective story, this is an intimate tale, a certain negative of the autobiography of a young woman looking at other young women and how all of them are perceived by a society where misogyny and violence against them is still an everyday affair." —Pagina/12
"A tense, precise chronicle that treats seriously a still serious subject." —El Cultural
"Selva Almada reinvents the imaginative rural world of a country. She is an author gifted with a very uncommon power and sensitivity." —Rolling Stone (Argentina)
"Gripping, shocking and sad." —The Book Satchel
"Dead Girls is a brutal, necessary story in which Almada describes the crimes, states the facts and lays bare the horror of these femicides." —Tony's Reading List
ISBN: 9781916277847
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
146 pages