Project Description

She-WolfOrfa Alarcón

Mexico

ORFA ALARCÓN was born in Monterrey in 1979 and studied Spanish literature. Her short stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies. She was finalist of the first Iberoamericano Planeta – Casa de América de Narrativa Prize with her novel BRAVE BITCH (2010), translated into German and French. She was a FONCA scholar in the Jóvenes Creadores programme in 2007, 2011, and 2014, and she is currently a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (2019-2021).

Orfa Alarcón© Orfa Alarcón

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She-Wolf

A she-wolf who wants to be free, but can she survive without her pack? Lucy wants to escape from the territory of her father, a powerful and fearsome politician, who is also a prominent organized crime boss in northern Mexico. Her attempt to escape does not follow a well-defined plan, which is why she is captured by Treviño, one of her father’s faithful henchmen. But Lucy does not give up, even if in her escape she loses almost everything: her comfortable life, her handful of friends, her lovers, her bodyguard… Everything, except her gun. But this is only the beginning: in her tender years she will get to know degradation, death, misery, perhaps incest. Maybe her vague hope of escape will not come true. Maybe her wolf-pack is bigger than she imagines. Maybe there is no escape. But Lucy is nothing if not determined, and all her experiences give her new strength to take on whatever may happen.

She-Wolf (“Loba”) is a fast-paced and dizzying novel about the abysses of the human soul and Mexican society today, a novel that by its unlikely extremes gives you the most unexpected and clearest insights, and with a long-lasting reverberation in the reader’s mind.

Quotes

She-Wolf

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Brave Bitch

Monterrey, north Mexico: By the side of the powerful drugs lord Julio, the student Fernanda lives an extravagant life: parties, sex, and plenty of money. In return she devotes herself unconditionally to her man, with a love that is to change to its cruel opposite when Julio is no longer the one Fernanda used to know.

Fernanda is a young woman who has everything and yet, haunted by her own past and the lack of control over her own life as the lover of a narcotics boss, she descends into a downward spiral of dependence and violence. Brave Bitch (“Perra Brava”) is a fast-paced, powerful novel, in which glamour, wealth and beauty are mere facades of corrupt Mexican society.

Quotes

Brave Bitch

RIGHTS

NOVELS
She-Wolf (“Loba”)
Mexico City: Alfaguara 2019, 330 p.

Bitch Doll
Mexico City: Ediciones B 2013, 424 p.

Brave Bitch (“Perra Brava”)
Mexico City: Editorial Planeta 2010, 204 p., Debolsillo (PRH) pb 2021
Film rights sold to Redrum Films
Finalist: Iberoamericano Planeta – Casa de América de Narrativa Prize 2010
France: Asphalte 2018 · Germany: Wagenbach 2014

PARTICIPATIONS IN ANTHOLOGIES
The Renewed Death. Anthology of Mexican Noir
(“La renovada muerte. Antología del Noir mexicano”)
Mexico: Grijalbo 2019

The Border – The Mexican-US-American Frontier and its Artists
(“La Frontera – Die mexikanisch-US-amerikanische Grenze und ihre Künstler”)
Frankfurt am Main: Faust Kultur 2014

Minimal Anthology of Orgasm (“Antología mínima del orgasmo”)
Monterrey: Ediciones intempestivas 2009

Anthology: Young Creators Generation 2007/2008
(“Antología: jóvenes creadores generación 2007/2008”)
Mexico City: FONCA 2008

The Emptiness of Non-Empty Streets. Young University Literature 2002-2005
(“El vacío de las calles no vacías. Literatura joven universitaria 2002-2005.”)
San Nicolás: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León 2006
(Short Stories: Process of Laceration (“Proceso de laceración”) and Just So You Listen to Me, Even Though It’s in Black and White (“Para que me escuches, aunque sea en blanco y negro”))