3.0
The Dance and the Fire
ByPublisher Description
In a gripping, atmospheric new novel by acclaimed Mexican writer Daniel Saldaña París, three friends forever bound by erotic flames of the past reunite in a city engulfed by wildfires and an ecstatic dancing plague
After years apart, three high school friends return to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where an intense love triangle once left an indelible mark on their adolescence. The city, surrounded by a ring of claustrophobic wildfires, brings out the past and confronts them with their present: they must once again face the entanglement of friendship and desire, the seemingly distant discovery of sexuality, complex parental relationships, and the daunting task of artistic fulfillment.
In the background, two forces of chaos and destruction are a constant presence. As fires ravage the physical landscape, one of the friends begins choreographing an ecstatic dance inspired by the German expressionist Mary Wigman and medieval Danse Macabre. What starts as a coping mechanism for the anxieties of youth and climate catastrophe becomes an overpowering, all-consuming hysteria. Mysterious powers are awakened, the boundary between reality and myth begins to blur, and the friends find themselves immersed in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain universe.
After years apart, three high school friends return to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where an intense love triangle once left an indelible mark on their adolescence. The city, surrounded by a ring of claustrophobic wildfires, brings out the past and confronts them with their present: they must once again face the entanglement of friendship and desire, the seemingly distant discovery of sexuality, complex parental relationships, and the daunting task of artistic fulfillment.
In the background, two forces of chaos and destruction are a constant presence. As fires ravage the physical landscape, one of the friends begins choreographing an ecstatic dance inspired by the German expressionist Mary Wigman and medieval Danse Macabre. What starts as a coping mechanism for the anxieties of youth and climate catastrophe becomes an overpowering, all-consuming hysteria. Mysterious powers are awakened, the boundary between reality and myth begins to blur, and the friends find themselves immersed in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain universe.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Dance and the Fire Reviews
3.0
Ellie
Created 7 days agoShare
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Heather Schultz
Created 27 days agoShare
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John Lindenbaum
Created about 1 month agoShare
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LeeReads🫀
Created about 2 months agoShare
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“I really enjoyed this book. I get the negative reviews, but I didn't find it confusing at all - it's split into thirds, each from the POV of one member of a former teenage love triangle now in their mid-30s, and it's such a tight POV that (illogical) beliefs and obsessions bleed fully into the narration. Things keep happening cyclically, but the plot itself is linear and each POV picks up where the last left off. I really enjoyed getting the perspective of each character on the others so fully, with the all the history and tenderness and disappoinment involved.”
Ashy 🧿
Created 2 months agoShare
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“Really really struggled to finish this one. I literally have no idea what I just read.”
About Daniel Saldaña París
DANIEL SALDAÑA PARÍS is a Mexican writer based in New York and Mexico City. He is the author of the essay collection Planes Flying over a Monster and the novels Among Strange Victims and Ramifications. In 2017 he was named on the Bogota39 list of best Latin American writers under 40.
CHRISTINA MACSWEENEY is an award-winning translator of Latin American literature. She has worked with such authors as Valeria Luiselli, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Julián Herbert, and Jazmina Barrera.
CHRISTINA MACSWEENEY is an award-winning translator of Latin American literature. She has worked with such authors as Valeria Luiselli, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Julián Herbert, and Jazmina Barrera.
Other books by Daniel Saldaña París
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