Join us at The Writer’s Block for Libros & Chisme, a book club hosted by BMI associate director of development Kim Treviño-Kiraly.
Travel with us around the world as we discuss the brilliant books being written by Latin American authors — with conversations guaranteed to be better than your comadres’ chisme. Whether you’re a fast reader or never quite finish a book, this club welcomes everyone with an interest in Latin American literature. Juntos en la misma página, sin fronteras!
About the book: Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
A thought-provoking meditation on grief, acceptance, and the monstrous sides of love and loyalty, Gerardo Sámano Córdova blends bold imagination and evocative prose with deep emotional rigor. Told in four acts that span the globe from Brooklyn to Berlin, Monstrilio offers, with uncanny clarity, a cathartic and precise portrait of being human.