Restoration

Synopsis

Propelled by female desire, shaped by the violence of the male gaze, and inspired by the endless vitality of old stories remade anew, Restoration draws on Bluebeard, Salvador Elizondo, Juan Rulfo, Angela Carter, Octavio Paz, Mariana Enriquez, and Amparo Dávila to create a haunting novel of obsession, reclamation, and romance gone very, very wrong.

Jasmina has been hired by her maybe-boyfriend to restore his family's crumbling home, a grubby, abandoned time capsule where a celebrated artist once lived. As she moves from room to room—scrubbing, scraping, and plastering over cracks—the stories hidden within the house begin to awaken, and the lives of the women who came before her slowly merge with her own. Who is the woman in the old photograph? And what secrets remain behind the final locked door?

A ghost story with porous borders between past and present, Restoration blurs the line between its characters and its readers, asking unsettling questions about memory, desire, and the doors we keep closed.

About the Author

Ave Barrera is a Mexican writer and editor from Guadalajara. Her debut novel, The Forgery, won the Sergio Galindo Literary Award and introduced English-language readers to her distinctive blend of literary fiction and the uncanny. Restoration, winner of the 2018 Lipp Prize, continues her exploration of memory, gender, art, and haunted spaces. This edition is translated from the Spanish by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers.

Publisher
Charco Press

Publication Date
August 26, 2025

Format
Paperback

Pages
258

Subjects
Literary Fiction · Fiction in Translation · Gothic Fiction · Feminist Fiction · Psychological Fiction · Ghost Stories · Mexican Literature

ISBN
9781917260022