Elaine Vilar Madruga

In this provocative, darkly funny, and unique novel—a mix of Lord of the Flies and The Royal Tenenbaums —a dictator's former right-hand man becomes housebound and a family power struggle erupts. Growing up on a Cuba-esque Caribbean island, Casandra, Calia, and Caleb endure life under two that of their parents, and the Island’s authoritarian dictator, Pop-Pop Mustache. Papa was the dictator's former right-hand man. Now, he’s a political pariah and an ugly parody of a tyrant, treating his home as a nation which he rules with an iron fist. As for Mom, his wife and hateful second in command, she rules from the mind. Obsessed with armchair psychoanalysis, she spends her days reading self-help books and seeks to diagnose the kids, and perhaps even herself. But within these walls, a rebellion is fomenting. Casandra, a cynical, self-important teenager with the most unlikely of attractions, recruits Caleb, meek yet gifted with a deadly touch, to join her in an insurrection against their father’s arbitrary totalitarianism. Meanwhile, Calia, the silent, youngest sibling who just wants to be left alone to draw animals, may be in league with the flies—whose swarm in and around the house grows larger as Papa’s violence increases. Equal parts Greek tragedy and horror, with a touch of J.D. Salinger and Luis Buñuel, The Tyranny of Flies is a biting and wholly original subversive masterpiece that examines the inherent violence of authority and the frightening and indelible links between patriarchy, military, and family. Translated from the Spanish by Kevin Gerry Dunn

La selva es un dios hambriento. Uno que permite vivir a salvo en sus dominios pero exige el más alto de los precios a cambio. Su voracidad no termina nunca y aquellos que viven bajo su control deben entregarle a sus hijos como parte de un cíclico tributo caníbal. En este cuento de terror caribeño, las madres son obligadas a criar a sus propios hijos como futuro alimento, en un sacrificio hecho de sangre y locura. Si se desea sobrevivir aquí, ninguna mujer puede decidir no ser madre. Y ninguna madre puede no convertirse en una mera productora de carne humana para que el sistema de ofrendas y retribuciones siga funcionando. En un mundo despiadado de guerrilleros y narcos, la selva garantiza la seguridad a sus habitantes, quienes renuncian a cualquier tipo de derecho y esperanza en esta fábula terrible sobre la maternidad y el cuerpo de la mujer.