{"product_id":"the-dance-and-the-fire-isbn-9781646222452","title":"The Dance and the Fire","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn a gripping, atmospheric new novel by acclaimed Mexican writer Daniel Saldaña París, three friends forever bound by erotic flames of the past reunite in a city engulfed by wildfires and an ecstatic dancing plague\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter years apart, three high school friends return to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where an intense love triangle once left an indelible mark on their adolescence. The city, surrounded by a ring of claustrophobic wildfires, brings out the past and confronts them with their present: they must once again face the entanglement of friendship and desire, the seemingly distant discovery of sexuality, complex parental relationships, and the daunting task of artistic fulfillment. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the background, two forces of chaos and destruction are a constant presence. As fires ravage the physical landscape, one of the friends begins choreographing an ecstatic dance inspired by the German expressionist Mary Wigman and medieval Danse Macabre. What starts as a coping mechanism for the anxieties of youth and climate catastrophe becomes an overpowering, all-consuming hysteria. Mysterious powers are awakened, the boundary between reality and myth begins to blur, and the friends find themselves immersed in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain universe.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e, A Best Book of Summer\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eW Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, A Best Book of Summer\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, A Title to Watch\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/i\u003e, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Millions, \u003c\/i\u003eA Most Anticipated Book of the Summer\u003ci\u003e \u003cbr\u003eOur Culture Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"A kaleidoscopic, erudite, and sweepingly tender novel reminiscent of Sebald, if Sebald was on acid. \u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e’s power comes from the ambitious (yet brilliantly compacted) range of its themes—fatherhood, eros, art, judgment, personal and archival aporia—that culminate in a book as capacious, porous, and resonant as history itself.\" —Ocean Vuong\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Daniel Saldaña París’s new novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, has everything a reader could want: climate dystopia, hysterical dancing, and a long-standing love triangle . . . As the surrounding landscape succumbs, one friend seeks solace in dance. Inspired by German Expressionism and medieval danse macabre, the performance expands into something more intense than any of them anticipated, fracturing boundaries between the present world and the past, between myth and reality.\" —Isle McElroy, \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Saldaña París’ reconstruction of this centuries-old tale feels vibrant and urgent in this age of wildfires and pandemics.\" —Alejandra Oliva, \u003ci\u003eAmericas Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The fires provide both a backdrop and a running metaphor. Saldaña París is interested in inflammation and contagion—as in searing pain, easy gossip, sleazy pastors, catching conspiracy, smoldering desire.\" —Meghan Racklin, \u003ci\u003eThe Brooklyn Rail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e is an evocative portrait of sexuality, friendship, and art, amongst a setting of nearby destruction.\" —Sam Franzini, \u003ci\u003eOur Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e’s achievement is in giving the story of a friendship such depth and difficulty that it holds its own against the absurd events of the novel’s third act. In the end, the novel’s commitment to the 'dense undergrowth' behind the mundane details of relation allows it to operate in simultaneously tragic and comic registers. Its tripartite interiority balances the bleak visuals of the burning city.\" —Molly MacVeagh, \u003ci\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A sophisticated tour-de-force centering the ungovernable forces that nourish, propel, and destroy us. París’s cerebral, compassionate prose encompasses a vast range of lived experiences, including the domestic, the uncanny, and the beautifully flawed.\" —Sofija Popovska, \u003ci\u003eAsymptote Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003e[T]he Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e brought Saldaña París as much insight into the secrets of his character(s) as it brought me into the search so many of us undertake for the fundamental details of our own stories, details that have been simply misplaced or even buried under the ashes of the past.\" —Cory Oldweiller, \u003ci\u003eSouthwest Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In telling \u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e through three voices, the story comes at us in compelling bits and pieces defined by the often-pinhole perspectives of each. The stakes, too, are there in the background of these personal dramas—the city seemingly on the brink of explosion, its inextinguishable fires a dread-inducing bass line that won’t let up.\" —Diana Arterian, \u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With \u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, París takes experimental leaps—juxtaposing voices, tones, and literary styles . . . It’s a heady novel of relationships and ideas that has not left me in the months since I first read it.\" —Willem Marx, \u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A smoldering tale of three friends whose erotic and artistic dynamics rouse a Mexican city from its collective slumber.\" —Sophia Stewart,\u003ci\u003e The Millions \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Poignant and compelling, this lyrical translation of Saldaña París’ depiction of youth foundering into maturity against the backdrop of chaos, hysteria, and destruction is a solid add for all literary collections.\" —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e is an eerie, erudite addition to modern folk horror, ideal for fans of Samanta Schweblin's\u003ci\u003e Fever Dream\u003c\/i\u003e.\" — Nina Semczuk, \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In the evocative latest from Saldaña París (\u003ci\u003ePlanes Flying over a Monster\u003c\/i\u003e), a choreographer’s visionary project shakes a Mexican city out of its collective slumber . . . Saldaña París executes some spellbinding moves . . . This smoldering tale is worth a look.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hallucinatory perception, the ephemeral nature of memory, and the intransience of art all come into play in this triptych of confessions from deepest Mexico. Here, Saldaña París leans less on the tragicomedy of the human condition to craft something a little darker and meaner about damaged people turning their hurt inward.\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e is exuberantly strange, dark, and comic; an enthralling ode to Cuernavaca and the modern rebirth of medieval choreomania, as well as a prophecy about what happens when the built-up dread of our world on fire begins to seep into the soul. Daniel Saldaña Paris is an extraordinary talent, and his novel feels both urgent and true.\" —Lauren Groff\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An absorbing and alarming chimera of a novel in which past meets present, fantasy meets flesh, and individual malaise collides with the woes of a vast and unraveling society. Saldaña París is a deft and clever storyteller.\" —C. Pam Zhang, author of \u003ci\u003eLand of Milk and Honey\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Dance and the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e is a wonder, brimming with hypnotic prose, wildly vivid descriptions, and intimately—and intricately—drawn characters. It’s as explosive as a wildfire, yet as precise and graceful as meticulously crafted choreography. All that remains is to dance.\" —Isaac Fitzgerlad, author of \u003ci\u003eDirtbag, Massachusetts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Saldaña Paris' prose is subtle, and his intelligence diaphanous. But be aware: the characters and the stories that bring them together are ferocious.\" —Álvaro Enrigue, author of \u003ci\u003eYou Dreamed of Empires\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eDANIEL SALDAÑA PARÍS\u003c\/b\u003e is a Mexican writer based in New York and Mexico City. He is the author of the essay collection \u003ci\u003ePlanes Flying over a Monster\u003c\/i\u003e and the novels \u003ci\u003eAmong Strange Victims \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRamifications\u003c\/i\u003e. In 2017 he was named on the Bogota39 list of best Latin American writers under 40.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHRISTINA MACSWEENEY\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning translator of Latin American literature. She has worked with such authors as Valeria Luiselli, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Julián Herbert, and Jazmina Barrera.","brand":"Catapult","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233650815205,"sku":"NP9781646222452","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781646222452.jpg?v=1767738912","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-dance-and-the-fire-isbn-9781646222452","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}