The She-Devil in the Mirror

Salvadorean society is shocked by the gruesome murder of a young upper-class woman, and no one more so than her best friend Laura. In her first-person solo narration, Laura rattles on and on about her disbelief and horror at the evils all around her— but who's that in the mirror? Laura Rivera can't believe what has happened. Her best friend has been killed in cold blood in the living room of her home, in front of her two young daughters! Nobody knows who pulled the trigger, but Laura will not rest easy until she finds out. Her dizzying, delirious, hilarious, and blood-curdling one-sided dialogue carries the reader on a rough and tumble ride through the social, political, economic, and sexual chaos of post-civil war San Salvador. A detective story of pulse-quickening suspense, The She-Devil in the Mirror is also a sober reminder that justice and truth are more often than not illusive. Castellanos Moya's relentless, obsessive narrator—female, rich,... Salvadorean society is shocked by the gruesome murder of a young upper-class woman, and no one more so than her best friend Laura. In her first-person solo narration, Laura rattles on and on about her disbelief and horror at the evils all around her—but who's that in the mirror? Laura Rivera can't believe what has happened. Her best friend has been killed in cold blood in the living room of her home, in front of her two young daughters! Nobody knows who pulled the trigger, but Laura will not rest easy until she finds out. Her dizzying, delirious, hilarious, and blood-curdling one-sided dialogue carries the reader on a rough and tumble ride through the social, political, economic, and sexual chaos of post-civil war San Salvador. A detective story of pulse-quickening suspense, The She-Devil in the Mirror is also a sober reminder that justice and truth are more often than not illusive. Castellanos Moya's relentless, obsessive narrator—female, rich, paranoid, wonderfully perceptive, and, in the end, fabulously unreliable—paints with frivolous profundity a society in a state of collapse. Castellanos Moya's Senselessness was acclaimed "an innovative and invigoratingly twisted piece of art" (Village Voice) and "a brilliantly crafted moral fable, as if Kafka had gone to Latin America for his source materials" (Russell Banks). "Laura Rivera can't believe what has happened. Her best friend has been killed in cold blood in her own living room! Nobody knows who pulled the trigger or who might have masterminded the murder, but Laura - an upper-crust young woman used to getting her own way - will not rest easy until she finds out. Laura's dizzying, delirious, hilarious, and blood-curdling monologue carries the reader on a rough-and-tumble ride through the chaos of post-civil war San Salvador." "A detective story of pulse-quickening suspense, The She-Devil in the Mirror is also a sober reminder that justice and truth are more often than not illusory. Castellanos Moya's relentless, obsessive narrator - female, rich, paranoid, wonderfully perceptive and, in the end, fabulously unreliable - paints with frivolous profundity a society in a state of collapse. As her anger and panic grow, Laura talks faster and faster: she sends the story screeching around corners, her voice leaving black tire marks along the way. Nothing can stop her as she rattles on and on about her disbelief and horror at the evils all around her - but who's that in the mirror?"--Jacket