Reservoir Bitches

Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025
Dahlia de la Cerda (trans. Julia Sanches, Heather Cleary)

‘The stories are all narrated by women, from the daughters of crime bosses to designer-clad socialites, whose voices are all so alive and vibrant that reading this collection was a genuine thrill. Reservoir Bitches doesn’t shy from portraying Mexico’s gritty underbelly but, much like her fellow countrywoman Fernanda Melchor, De La Verda’s stories scrutinise Mexican society with great humour. It is a remarkably good debut collection.’

Barry Pierce, The Big Issue

‘Women lie, cheat, kill, and die in Mexican writer de la Cerda’s searing English-language debut … de la Cerda offers a refreshingly unapologetic voice for women who refuse to be placated. This is worth a look.’

Publishers Weekly

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‘[de la Cerda’s] tactics succeed in creating the enchanting feeling that one is sitting across from each narrator, being told their stories as a close confidante … The author’s demand that we bear witness to the senseless murders, in all their gruesomeness, of these bright young women is sobering and commendable.’

Kirkus Reviews

‘This book has the force of an ocean gully: it sucks you in, it drags you through the mud, and it cleans you in equal measure.’

Andrea Abreu, author of Dogs of Summer

‘The brutal, fascinating, and truthful stories in Reservoir Bitches describe, without self-indulgence, the highly complex reality of young women in Mexico.’

Berna González Harbour, El País

‘It's been a long time since I've read a book like this: the kind that makes you feel like your chest is going to explode.’

María Teresa Priego-Broca, La Silla Rota

‘Not only do these Reservoir Bitches not back down, but they also have the ability to laugh at themselves. Even in the most terrible moments, when as a reader you feel like you can’t breathe, the narrative voice knows how to make us smile, and even laugh out loud.’

Irma Gallo, Mexican cultural journalist and writer

‘Dahlia de la Cerda’s work has become a reference point for its groundbreaking characters, for its fusion of expressionism and irony.’

Manuel García Pérez, Mundiaro

‘A small monument to transgressive, tough, soft, romantic, painful literature … While the author beats us up, we revel in pleasure. Laughter. Because the prose is delicate despite everything. Because humour thrives among narco-socialites, contract killers, wannabe high society women, and influencers who worry about how many likes they have on Instagram.’

Gerardo Lima Molina, author of Megaloceros

‘Dahlia de la Cerda is the armed wing of morras who write, the long-awaited apostle of morras who help morras. Barrio counterwriting, misoprostol mixed with weed, narcocorrido tweets, a fuckload of violence, Dahlia’s books are all or nothing — luxury literature that is proletarian, radical, and carnal for our era of idiots and cowards.’

Gabriela Wiener, author of Undiscovered

‘I couldn’t put this book down! Equal parts punk, brilliant, and urgent, with a side of Mexican goth. Dahlia de la Cerda’s blend of raw, at times brutal storytelling is exactly what we need right now. A force on its own that refuses to be tamed, the writing here is a literary gift.’

Julián Delgado Lopera, author of Fiebre Tropical

‘Reservoir Bitches is a blisteringly urgent collection of interconnected stories about contemporary Mexican women. It absolutely bangs from the first page to the last. It’s extremely funny but deadly serious and we loved the energy and flair of the dual translators’ approach. It packs an enormous political and linguistic punch but is also subtle, revelatory and moving about the ways in which these women hustle, innovate, survive or don’t, in a world of labyrinthine dangers. This book weaves the riotous testimony of the living and the dead to create an expletive-rich feminist blast of Mexican literature.’

Judges’ comments from the 2025 International Booker Prize

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

A debut linked story collection of gritty, streetwise, and wickedly funny fiction from Mexico.

Life’s a bitch. That’s why you gotta rattle her cage, even if she’s foaming at the mouth.

In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, thirteen Mexican women prod the bitch that is Life as they fight, sew, skirt, cheat, cry, and lie their way through their tangled circumstances. From the all-powerful daughter of a cartel boss to the victim of transfemicide, from a houseful of spinster seamstresses to a socialite who supports her politician husband by faking Indigenous roots, these women spit on their own reduction and invent new ways to survive, telling their stories in bold, unapologetic voices. At once social critique and black comedy, Reservoir Bitches is a raucous debut from one of Mexico’s most thrilling new writers.

Barry Pierce, The Big Issue

Publishers Weekly

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Kirkus Reviews

‘This book has the force of an ocean gully: it sucks you in, it drags you through the mud, and it cleans you in equal measure.’

Andrea Abreu, author of Dogs of Summer

‘The brutal, fascinating, and truthful stories in Reservoir Bitches describe, without self-indulgence, the highly complex reality of young women in Mexico.’

Berna González Harbour, El País

‘It's been a long time since I've read a book like this: the kind that makes you feel like your chest is going to explode.’

María Teresa Priego-Broca, La Silla Rota

Irma Gallo, Mexican cultural journalist and writer

‘Dahlia de la Cerda’s work has become a reference point for its groundbreaking characters, for its fusion of expressionism and irony.’

Manuel García Pérez, Mundiaro

Gerardo Lima Molina, author of Megaloceros

Gabriela Wiener, author of Undiscovered

Julián Delgado Lopera, author of Fiebre Tropical

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:192pp

ISBN (13):9781761380419

RRP:$27.99

Pub date:3 Sep 2024

Rights Held: UK & Commonwealth (ex. Can)

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2025 The International Booker Prize - Long-listed

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Dahlia de la Cerda

Dahlia de la Cerda is a Mexican writer and activist. She has a BA in Philosophy and won the Comala Young National Short Story Award for Reservoir Bitches. She is also the author of the essay ‘Feminismo sin cuarto propio’, which is included in the anthology Tsunami 2, and co-founder of the feminist organisation Morras Help Morras. Her short story ‘The Smile’ was included in the first issue of Astra Magazine, and Reservoir Bitches is currently being developed as a series by Amazon Studios and Perro Azul.

TRANSLATORS

Julia Sanches

Julia Sanches translates literature from Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan into English. Born in Brazil, she now lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Heather Cleary

Heather Cleary is an award-winning translator of poetry and prose whose work has been recognised by English PEN, the National Book Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others.