Giovanna Rivero – författare

Náufragos, origami, posesión y ciencia: estos cuentos encarnan el punto de encuentro entre los horrores contemporáneos y los terrores antiguos.Seis relatos de una belleza oscura que laten con temáticas perturbadoras: la legitimidad de la venganza, el incesto como medio de supervivencia, brujería indígena versus tradición japonesa, el cuerpo como la víctima fatal que habitamos. Los cuentos de Rivero perforan al lector como una herida, ofreciendo también posibilidades de amor, justicia y esperanza. Narrados con un lirismo frágil y feroz, los cuentos de Tierra fresca de su tumba punzan los abismos del alma humana, y a la vez reforman los límites del gótico para incorporar ritos precolombinos, leyendas, ciencia ficción y erotismo.Shipwrecks, dive bars, possession, and science – this is where contemporary horrors and ancient terrors meet.In Fresh Dirt from the Grave , a hillside is “an emerald saddle teeming with evil and beauty.” It is this collision of harshness and tenderness that animates Giovanna Rivero’s short stories, where no degree of darkness (buried bodies, lost children, wild paroxysms of violence) can take away from the gentleness she shows all violated creatures. A mad aunt haunts her family, two Bolivian children are left on the outskirts of a Metis reservation outside Winnipeg, a widow teaches origami in a women’s prison and murders, housefires, and poisonings abound, but so does the persistent bravery of people trying to forge ahead in the face of the world. They are offered cruelty, often, indifference at best, and yet they keep going. Rivero has reworked the boundaries of the gothic to engage with pre-Columbian ritual, folk tales, sci-fi and eroticism, and found in the wound their humanity and the possibility of hope.

Shipwrecks, dive bars, possession, and science – this is where contemporary horrors and ancient terrors meet.In Fresh Dirt from the Grave , a hillside is “an emerald saddle teeming with evil and beauty.” It is this collision of harshness and tenderness that animates Giovanna Rivero’s short stories, where no degree of darkness (buried bodies, lost children, wild paroxysms of violence) can take away from the gentleness she shows all violated creatures. A mad aunt haunts her family, two Bolivian children are left on the outskirts of a Metis reservation outside Winnipeg, a widow teaches origami in a women’s prison and murders, housefires, and poisonings abound, but so does the persistent bravery of people trying to forge ahead in the face of the world. They are offered cruelty, often, indifference at best, and yet they keep going. Rivero has reworked the boundaries of the gothic to engage with pre-Columbian ritual, folk tales, sci-fi and eroticism, and found in the wound their humanity and the possibility of hope.

Shipwrecks, dive bars, possession, and science – this is where contemporary horrors and ancient terrors meet.In Fresh Dirt from the Grave , a hillside is “an emerald saddle teeming with evil and beauty.” It is this collision of harshness and tenderness that animates Giovanna Rivero’s short stories, where no degree of darkness (buried bodies, lost children, wild paroxysms of violence) can take away from the gentleness she shows all violated creatures. A mad aunt haunts her family, two Bolivian children are left on the outskirts of a Metis reservation outside Winnipeg, a widow teaches origami in a women’s prison and murders, housefires, and poisonings abound, but so does the persistent bravery of people trying to forge ahead in the face of the world. They are offered cruelty, often, indifference at best, and yet they keep going. Rivero has reworked the boundaries of the gothic to engage with pre-Columbian ritual, folk tales, sci-fi and eroticism, and found in the wound their humanity and the possibility of hope.

Náufragos, origami, posesión y ciencia: estos cuentos encarnan el punto de encuentro entre los horrores contemporáneos y los terrores antiguos.Seis relatos de una belleza oscura que laten con temáticas perturbadoras: la legitimidad de la venganza, el incesto como medio de supervivencia, brujería indígena versus tradición japonesa, el cuerpo como la víctima fatal que habitamos. Los cuentos de Rivero perforan al lector como una herida, ofreciendo también posibilidades de amor, justicia y esperanza. Narrados con un lirismo frágil y feroz, los cuentos de Tierra fresca de su tumba punzan los abismos del alma humana, y a la vez reforman los límites del gótico para incorporar ritos precolombinos, leyendas, ciencia ficción y erotismo.Shipwrecks, dive bars, possession, and science – this is where contemporary horrors and ancient terrors meet.In Fresh Dirt from the Grave , a hillside is “an emerald saddle teeming with evil and beauty.” It is this collision of harshness and tenderness that animates Giovanna Rivero’s short stories, where no degree of darkness (buried bodies, lost children, wild paroxysms of violence) can take away from the gentleness she shows all violated creatures. A mad aunt haunts her family, two Bolivian children are left on the outskirts of a Metis reservation outside Winnipeg, a widow teaches origami in a women’s prison and murders, housefires, and poisonings abound, but so does the persistent bravery of people trying to forge ahead in the face of the world. They are offered cruelty, often, indifference at best, and yet they keep going. Rivero has reworked the boundaries of the gothic to engage with pre-Columbian ritual, folk tales, sci-fi and eroticism, and found in the wound their humanity and the possibility of hope.

Genoveva is sixteen. She goes to a Catholic girls’ school and lives, as she puts it, in the 'ass end of the world' – a remote town in deep Latin America, where modernization arrives hand-in-hand with drug trafficking. Between a mother lost in delusional dreams and a father clinging to the ruins of long-faded Trotskyism, Genoveva narrates her world with a voice that’s raw, contradictory, fearless, and startlingly innocent.She doesn’t like what she sees. She doesn’t like what she touches. She doesn’t like the life she has – or the one that awaits her. But from that discomfort emerges a fierce spiritual longing, a desperate urge to believe in something – anything – that might offer an escape.98 Seconds Without a Shadow is a luminous, unsettling coming-of-age novel about faith, rebellion, and the unbearable solitude of adolescence. Through Genoveva’s eyes, we glimpse a broken world where horror and hope are indistinguishable – and survival may lie in surrendering to either.

Genoveva is sixteen. She goes to a Catholic girls’ school and lives, as she puts it, in the 'ass end of the world' – a remote town in deep Latin America, where modernization arrives hand-in-hand with drug trafficking. Between a mother lost in delusional dreams and a father clinging to the ruins of long-faded Trotskyism, Genoveva narrates her world with a voice that’s raw, contradictory, fearless, and startlingly innocent.She doesn’t like what she sees. She doesn’t like what she touches. She doesn’t like the life she has – or the one that awaits her. But from that discomfort emerges a fierce spiritual longing, a desperate urge to believe in something – anything – that might offer an escape.98 Seconds Without a Shadow is a luminous, unsettling coming-of-age novel about faith, rebellion, and the unbearable solitude of adolescence. Through Genoveva’s eyes, we glimpse a broken world where horror and hope are indistinguishable – and survival may lie in surrendering to either.

Genoveva tiene dieciséis años. Estudia en un colegio católico para mujeres y vive, como ella misma dice, en el «culo del mundo»: un pueblo remoto de Bolivia donde la modernidad llegó de la mano del narcotráfico. Entre una madre ausente y un padre aferrado a las ruinas de un trotskismo ya extinguido, no soporta la vida que tiene ni la que le espera. Sin embargo, de ese malestar nace una necesidad feroz de creer en algo —en lo que sea— que le permita escapar.En 98 segundos sin sombra , la angustia adolescente encuentra una voz apasionada, rabiosa e hipnótica. La búsqueda de identidad, la fe, la rebeldía y la insoportable soledad de la adolescencia se entrelazan en un mundo donde el horror y la esperanza se confunden, y donde la supervivencia quizá dependa de entregarse o no, a una cosa o la otra.Genoveva is sixteen. She goes to a Catholic girls’ school and lives, as she puts it, in the 'ass end of the world' – a remote town in deep Latin America, where modernization arrives hand-in-hand with drug trafficking. Between a mother lost in delusional dreams and a father clinging to the ruins of long-faded Trotskyism, Genoveva narrates her world with a voice that’s raw, contradictory, fearless, and startlingly innocent.She doesn’t like what she sees. She doesn’t like what she touches. She doesn’t like the life she has – or the one that awaits her. But from that discomfort emerges a fierce spiritual longing, a desperate urge to believe in something – anything – that might offer an escape.98 Seconds Without a Shadow is a luminous, unsettling coming-of-age novel about faith, rebellion, and the unbearable solitude of adolescence. Through Genoveva’s eyes, we glimpse a broken world where horror and hope are indistinguishable – and survival may lie in surrendering to either.

Tierra fresca de su tumba, de Giovanna Rivero (Editorial Candaya, 2021): "Lo cotidiano y lo gótico, la distopía y el realismo más extremo: seis inquietantes relatos que tienen mucho que decir en la renovación de la literatura fantástica latinoamericana."En los cuentos de Tierra fresca de su tumba aparecen pescadores que atraviesan los mares de la muerte, niñas abandonadas en las estepas que encuentran en el góspel un puente hacia la belleza, mujeres cuya demencia no es otra cosa que un corazón despedazado, ancianas japonesas que cavan en un jardín para encontrar lo mejor y lo peor de sí mismas, muchachos de una tribu del Canadá que se visten con pieles de animales para poder rugir de nuevo. Personajes, en definitiva, que rasgan la delgada membrana de la vida ordinaria, intentan tocar, con las manos extendidas de la infancia, la dimensión sensual del más allá y se asoman peligrosamente a un abismo interior que acabara por devorarlos.Seis historias de oscuridad luminosa que nos atraviesan como una herida, y que al final nos hacen comprender las posibilidades del amor, la justicia y la esperanza, pero también, como en "Un descenso al Maelstrom" de Edgar Allan Poe, la altura y la profundidad del abismo.