Soledad awakes to find herself invisible, standing in the middle of Mexico City. Is she really invisible or do others just no loner see her? Prisoner of her passions—to change identity, to be the object of someone's desire, to disappear—Soledad always ends up with her wishes coming true, but along with their unknown side. Desire and Its Shadow is set in the centro histórico of the biggest city in America, with its vestiges of the ancient Aztec empire, its boulevards of heroic statues, its homeless children living in the shadows of cathedrals and palaces. This novel describes the undercurrents of the mysterious, often cruel streets of downtown Mexico City, where the blind can see, ghosts talk to those who still listen, adn shadows both ancient and modermn meld together to recount an initiation into sex, love and madness.
Ana Clavel (Mexico City, 1961) is also the author of the novel Cuerpo náufrago and the collection of short stories Paraisos trémulos, Amorosos de atar, and Fuera de escena. Clavel has received grants from Mexico's instituto Nacional de Belas Artes and Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, in 2005 she won the Prix Juan Rulfo sponsored by Radio France Internationale for her novella Las violetas son flores del deseo and in 2004 she was awarded a silver medal by the Societé Academique Arts-Science-Lettres in Paris. Desire and Its Shadows, originally published in mexico as Los deseos y su sombra, was a finalist for the Premio Internacional Alfaguara de Novela.
"Ana Clavel...part of [Mexico's] new literary pack." —Publishers Weekly
"One of the best fiction writers born in the 60's..." —La Jornada Semanal (Mexico City)
