Reservoir Bitches: Stories

By Dahlia de la Cerda

LONGLISTED for the 2025 International Booker Prize

A debut collection of gritty, streetwise, and wickedly funny stories about Mexican women who fight, skirt, cheat, cry, kill, and lie their way to survival.

"Life's a bitch. That's why you gotta rattle her cage, even if she's foaming at the mouth." In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, thirteen Mexican women prod the bitch that is Life and become her. From the all-powerful daughter of a cartel boss to the victim of transfemicide, from a houseful of spinster seamstresses to a socialite who supports her politician husband by faking Indigenous roots, these women spit on their own reduction and invent new ways to endure, telling their own stories in bold, unapologetic voices. At once a work of black humor and social critique, Reservoir Bitches is a raucous debut from one of Mexico's most thrilling new writers.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558613110
• ISBN13: 9781558613119
• Release Date: September 2024
• Publisher: Feminist Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.9" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Like a punch in the throat

These stories take twists and turns that are both tragic and revealing. The characters are interconnected but most of the time you don't realize the connection until the end. The stories include violence against women and are incredibly sad, but there is also some needed vengeance exacted. I can't compare these stories to anyone else's because the author is unique and amazing.