This Ecuadorian short story collection explores domestic horrors
and everyday violence, a grotesque, unflinching portrait of
twenty-first-century Latin America (Publishers Weekly).
"Ampuero's literary voice is tough and beautiful at once: her stories
are exquisite and dangerous objects." --Yuri Herrera, author of Signs
Preceding the End of the World
Named one of the ten best fiction books of 2018 by the New York Times
en Español, Cockfight is the debut work by Ecuadorian writer and
journalist María Fernanda Ampuero.
In lucid and compelling prose, Ampuero sheds light on the hidden aspects
of the home: the grotesque realities of family, coming of age, religion,
and class struggle. A family's maids witness a horrible cycle of abuse,
a girl is auctioned off by a gang of criminals, and two sisters find
themselves at the mercy of their spiteful brother. With violence
masquerading as love, characters spend their lives trapped reenacting
their past traumas.
Heralding a brutal and singular new voice, Cockfight explores the
power of the home to both create and destroy those within it.