“Diving into family, loyalty, grief, and acceptance, Córdova examines the eternal question of nature vs. nurture with this stunning and horrifying debut novel.”
After her son Santiago dies, grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of his lung. Fueled by the questionable logic of an arcane folktale and her own fierce maternal instinct, Magos nurtures the lung as it becomes sentient.
Soon the lung grows into a carnivorous little Monstrilio. Hidden inside the walls of her family’s crumbling Mexico City estate, the beast eventually begins to resemble the son Magos lost.
But no matter how much love and care she provides Monstrilio, his innate impulses soon threaten to destroy his second chance of ever having a normal life.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Gerardo Sámano Córdova is hitting the ground running with his debut novel. With short fiction appearing in such publications as The Common, Passages North, Chicago Quarterly Review, Catapult, and Ninth Letter, Córdova is a recipient of the Tyson Prize for fiction, as well as Hopwood Awards, and was a finalist for Henfield Award for Fiction. Diving into family, loyalty, grief, and acceptance, Córdova examines the eternal question of nature vs. nurture with this stunning and horrifying debut novel. Ana Reyes (The House in the Pines) says: “Monstrilio is unlike any other book I’ve read. Genuinely scary at times, it moved me with its humanity, made me laugh, and ultimately, made me cry. Gerardo Sámano Córdova has written a stunning exploration of grief, belonging, and familial love in prose so beautiful you won’t want to rush through it—even as you need to know what happens next.”, and Eric LaRocca (Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke) says: “Haunting and often bleakly humorous, Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s Monstrilio is a captivating tone poem of trauma, grief, and transformation. Córdova writes with the lyrical precision of a master surrealist and creates an uncompromising vision of literary horror that is so wholly unique and utterly his own.”
Releasing 7 March 2023 from Zando, Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
