Lost in the city
Subtitle: two novels
By: by Ignacio Solares ; translated by Carolyn & John Brushwood.
Contributors: Brushwood, Carolyn.; Brushwood, John Stubbs, 1920-; Solares, Ignacio, 1945-
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: The Texas Pan American series
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Austin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 144
Subjects: Solares, Ignacio, 1945-  -- Translations into English.
Description: Cristina, the young protagonist of Tree of Desire, and her little brother Joaquin run away from a home that is outwardly normal, but inwardly dysfunctional. Lost on the streets of Mexico City, they confront some of the most terrifying aspects of city life. Or is it all a dream? The story suggests, without confirming, that sexual abuse has driven Cristina to her desperate escape. But is it an escape? Are they awakening from a dream, or reentering a nightmare?

Serafin, too, is lost in the city. Searching for his father who has deserted the family, he is virtually helpless amid the city dangers. Serafin finds compassion in surprising places, but will he survive to return to his mother and their rural village?

These two novels by one of Mexico's premier writers illuminate many aspects of contemporary Mexican life. Solares describes Mexico's different social classes with Dickensian realism. His focus on young protagonists, unusual in Mexican literature, opens a window onto problems of children's vulnerability that know no national borders. At the same time, his use of elements of the fantastic and the paranormal, and his evocative writing style, make reading his novels a most pleasurable experience.
Table of contents: title: Tree of desire; title: Serafín.