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Serafina wanted a large-size pistol, even if it meant having to hold it with her two hands to fire it, even if the kick would almost wrench it out of her grip, even if the bullet, on entering through the victim's chest, would tear a great hole in his back.
Opening with a crime of passion after a years-long love affair has soured, The Dead Girls soon plunges into an investigation of something even darker: Serafina Baladro and her sister run a successful brothel business in a small town, so successful that they begin to expand. But when business starts to falter, life in the brothel turns ugly, and slowly, girls start disappearing . . .
Based on real events, the story of serial-killing brothel owners Delfina and María de Jesús González, whose crimes were uncovered in 1964, The Dead Girls is a deliciously satirical black comedy - a potent blend of sex and mayhem. Written in the laconic tones of a police report, it cleverly uncovers the hopeless pedantry of a broken justice system, and the dark world of prostitution - the oldest profession of all.
'Cynical madams, corrupt soldiers, cheapjack politicians, violent crimes, bodies in the back yard . . . The Dead Girls is a startlingly good book by an author of genuine, exciting originality' Salman Rushdie
About the author
Jorge Ibargüengoitia was born in 1928 in Guanajato, central Mexico. Winner of the Premio Casa de las Americas, as well as the Premio Mexico, for his novel Estas ruinas que vas. He worked as a translator, as a teacher of Spanish literature in American universities and as a journalist in Mexico City. He is also the author of The Dead Girls. He died in 1983 in Spain.
Summary
Inspired by true events, The Dead Girls is the story of the unexplained deaths of six young prostitutes, buried in the back yard of a small-town brothel.
Foreword
Inspired by true events, The Dead Girls is the story of the unexplained deaths of six young prostitutes, buried in the back yard of a small-town brothel.
Additional text
The extremely high quality of this novel arises out of Ibargüengoitia's remarkably ability to see the overheated components of his tragedy - cynical madams, corrupt soldiers, cheapjack politicians, indolent pimps, violent crimes, bodies in the back yard - with a cool dissecting eye that is somehwo netiehr amoral nor hip. The Dead Girls is a startlingly good book by an author of genuine, exciting originality
