The Week of Colors

Synopsis

From the "cursed mother of magical realism" comes a dazzling collection of stories, available in English for the first time.

A woman slips between two realities centuries apart as scenes from the violent conquest of Mexico bleed into her comfortable contemporary life. Two young girls visit the home of a sorcerer who tortures women named after the days of the week. Girls become dogs, a labourer hides human bones in bricks destined for a new development, and an old woman arrives at an acquaintance's door carrying a knife and a bone-chilling confession.

With The Week of Colors, Elena Garro laid the groundwork for the literary movements that would shape Latin American literature and beyond. These stories reveal the early roots of magical realism, feminist horror, and anticolonial speculative fiction while exposing the violence woven through history, family, and everyday life.

About the Author

Elena Garro (1916–1998) was a Mexican novelist, playwright, journalist, and short story writer whose groundbreaking work profoundly influenced Latin American literature. Though often described as a pioneer of magical realism, Garro rejected the label, preferring to explore the intersections of myth, memory, politics, and everyday life on her own terms. Her writing centres women, children, and Indigenous communities while confronting violence, injustice, and power with remarkable imagination and emotional depth. The Week of Colors is translated into English by the acclaimed translator Megan McDowell, whose work has introduced many of Latin America's most celebrated contemporary writers to English-language readers.

Publisher
Two Lines Press

Publication Date
November 11, 2025

Format
Paperback

Pages
260

Subjects
Literary Fiction · Translated Fiction · Short Stories · Magical Realism · Feminist Fiction · Mexican Literature · Latin American Literature · Speculative Fiction

ISBN
9781949641899