Yuri Herrera
(Translated by Lisa Dillman)
"The place was like a sleepwalker's bedroom: specific yet inexact, somehow unreal and yet vivid.."
The first two words of Signs are "I'm Dead" followed by a comma and qualifications that indicate that life is still present, as Makina, our heroine "flailed her feet frantically backward, each step mere inches from the sinkhole, until the precipice settled into a perfect circle and Makina was saved."
"Slippery bitch of a city, she said to herself. Always about to sink back into the cellar."
Makina will prove herself adept at keeping the ground under her feet and as tough as her imprecation to the city indicates. The city, and the world surrounding it, demands toughness to survive. It is not a cosy or trustworthy place.
