If there’s one way to sell a book in 2024 it’s by giving it a hot pink jacket, putting an iconic Graciela Iturbide photograph on the cover, and calling it Reservoir Bitches. Dahlia de la Cerda’s debut story collection begins with a woman in desperate need for an abortion. “You might think I’m exaggerating, that an unwanted pregnancy isn’t a catastrophe or anything,” she says in a narrative voice that howls from the page, “but for me it was. It was the biggest catastrophe of my life.”
Eventually, she procures some over-the-counter pills and writhes in pain as Legally Blonde plays on the TV. It’s a stark introduction to a book of linked stories that paints a landscape of contemporary Mexico. The stories are all narrated by women, from the daughters of crime bosses to designer-clad socialites, whose voices are all so alive and vibrant that reading this collection was a genuine thrill.
Praise must be heaped upon the translators, Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary, who borrow from London street slang to approximate De La Verda’s Mexican street slang, effectively allowing this translation to flow and sing in English. Reservoir Bitches doesn’t shy from portraying Mexico’s gritty underbelly but, much like her fellow countrywoman Fernanda Melchor, De La Verda’s stories scrutinise Mexican
society with great humour. It is a remarkably good debut collection.
Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary, is out now (Scribe, £9.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.
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