Malacría

How do the pasts that inhabit us, even those of which we are unaware, affect the present? Malacría, Elisa Díaz Castelo's superb debut novel, explores this theme through the intergenerational story of three women and the thread of violence that runs through it. One morning, after feeding the dogs, Perla leaves home and doesn't return. Hours later, her daughter Ele begins searching for her, joined by Jeni, Perla's partner, and Valeriana, an endearing dog who becomes a key character in the story. As they follow the trail of clues left by the missing woman, like pieces of an incomplete puzzle, the family's past appears and reappears through fragmented entries in an accounting ledger used as a diary, voice messages, lists, and so on. Thanks to these glimpses into reality and the inner world of the protagonists, Malacría also functions as an intimate portrait of the female experience in Mexican society during the 20th and early 21st centuries. In the manner of classical tragedies, this novel poses a question: isn't that which seems to protect us from reliving trauma precisely what ends up trapping us within it?