Cristina Rivera Garza Terrestrial

Annotation

MEWe come from far away and, all of a sudden, we no longer know where we are going. In Terrestrial, we follow travellers who carry little but longing and a sense of possibility. A woman returns to the town of a lover who once abandoned her, walking its streets listening for an echo. Two girls ride a train in search of a lake that may only exist in memory and myth. A group of workers build a temporary shelter, only to see it razed in an instant. These characters hitchhike, drift, wander, or at times, fly, to resist the forces that try to contain them. On dusty, sun-baked roads they remain close to the earth’s surface, sensing its tremors, its wounds, its wild promise and enduring beauty. Blending memoir, reportage and fiction, Rivera Garza bends form into something elemental and new, reshaping the boundaries of writing as she tails these young travellers. Terrestrial is a fierce and tender meditation on what it means to move through the world as a woman, on the landscapes that mark us, and our ties to the earth we tread on. Translated by Christina MacSweeneyPRAISE