The Iliac Crest by Sarah Booker & Cristina Rivera Garza

The Iliac Crest

By

star3.5 from 5 ratings

Description

Surreal and gothic, The Iliac Crest is a masterful excavation of forgotten Mexican women writers, illustrating the myriad ways that gendered language can wield destructive power.

On a dark and stormy night, two mysterious women invade an unnamed narrator’s house, where they proceed to ruthlessly question their host’s identity. The women are strangely intimate―even inventing together an incomprehensible, fluid language―and harass the narrator by repeatedly claiming that they know his greatest secret: that he is, in fact, a woman. As the increasingly frantic protagonist fails to defend his supposed masculinity, he eventually finds himself in a sanatorium.

Published for the first time in English, this Gothic tale is “utterly weird yet deeply resonant in its portrayal of gendered violence” (The Millions). Through layered and haunting prose, Cristina Rivera Garza unravels the cultural and political histories of Mexico, probing at the misogyny that fuels the disappearance of women in literature and in real life.  

"Astounding and thought-provoking." —Publishers Weekly  (starred review)

“An intelligent, beautiful story about bodies disguised as a story about language disguised as a story about night terrors. Cristina Rivera Garza does not respect what is expected of a writer, of a novel, of language. She is an agitator.” —Yuri Herrera, author of Kingdom Cons

More Sarah Booker & Cristina Rivera Garza Books

  • Jawbone

    Jawbone

    Mónica Ojeda & Sarah Booker

    Literary Fiction

  • The Iliac Crest

    The Iliac Crest

    Sarah Booker & Cristina Rivera Garza

    Fiction & Literature

  • Death Takes Me

    Death Takes Me

    Cristina Rivera Garza, Robin Myers & Sarah Booker

    Literary Fiction

  • Grieving

    Grieving

    Cristina Rivera Garza & Sarah Booker

    Fiction & Literature

  • Blood Red

    Blood Red

    Gabriela Ponce & Sarah Booker

    Fiction & Literature

  • New and Selected Stories

    New and Selected Stories

    Cristina Rivera Garza, Sarah Booker, Lisa Dillman, Francisca González Arias & Alex Ross

    Fiction & Literature

  • Nefando

    Nefando

    Mónica Ojeda & Sarah Booker

    Literary Fiction

  • Money Isn't Everything

    Money Isn't Everything

    Patricio Simonetto & Sarah Booker

    Social Science