Death on Rua Augusta

Poetry. Fiction. California Interest. Translated from the Spanish by David Shook. This mystery novel in verse won Mexico’s highest literary honor in 2009, the Xavier Villaurutia Prize. Here, it is translated by Bolano’s translator, Dylan Thomas Prize shortlisted poet David Shook. The novel centers around Mr. Gordon, who, after being let go from his job due to his unstable behaviour, experiences the unfolding of his spirit in an artificial Californian Eden. In the shade of a thousand-leaved tree, very near a pool’s edge, Gordon transcribes his thoughts, memories and questions while he tries to cope with abuse from his wife and his best friend, and battle dialogues emanating from an interior voice reminding us of Berryman’s Mr. Bones. DEATH ON RUA AUGUSTA is the diary of a person who cannibalizes themselves. In this important narrative poem, Tedi Lopez Mills dives magisterially into the machine of the mind to locate the fine line that keeps us tied to the world. A chapter-based novel in poetry form, Tedi Lopez Mills has written DEATH ON RUA AUGUSTA in the magical realist tradition, drawing on film noir and West Coast thrillers-making this a cinematically surreal and strange delight for all readers.