«Aridjis es muy h bil al conjurar ese embeleso adolescente que captura el significado debajo de cada superficie. Como la escritura de Sebald o Cusk, la suya ronda sus propias omisiones... La imagen del naufragio se avecina amenazante para Aridjis; se convierte en una lente muy til para ver este libro aut nomo, inescrutable y extra amente cautivador como un objeto rescatado que quiere volver al mar. -Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

Una tarde de oto o en la Ciudad de M xico, Luisa, de diecisiete a os, no regresa a casa. En su lugar, aborda un cami n a la costa del Pac fico con Tom s, un muchacho al que apenas conoce. l parece representar todo lo que le falta a su vida: temeridad, impulso e independencia. Y Tom s tambi n puede ayudarla a satisfacer una extra a obsesi n: encontrar a la compa a de enanos ucranianos. Seg n los reportes del peri dico, los enanos escaparon recientemente de un circo sovi tico durante una gira por M xico. Los imaginados destinos de estos artistas circenses llenan los surrealistas sue os de Luisa cuando se instala en una comunidad playera de Oaxaca. Rodeada de hippies, nudistas, buscadores de tesoros y exc ntricos contadores de historias, ella busca a alguien, a quien sea, que le prometa que sin importar nada, seguir siendo un misterio.

Todo esto es una misi n m s f cil de imaginar que de lograr. Mientras pasea por la orilla del mar y visita el bar local, Luisa comienza a desaparecer peligrosamente de las vidas de los desconocidos de Zipolite, la Playa de los muertos.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Aridjis is deft at conjuring the teenage swooniness that apprehends meaning below every surface. Like Sebald's or Cusk's, her haunted writing patrols its own omissions . . . The figure of the shipwreck looms large for Aridjis. It becomes a useful lens through which to see this book, which is self-contained, inscrutable, and weirdly captivating, like a salvaged object that wants to return to the sea. ―Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

One autumn afternoon in Mexico City, seventeen-year-old Luisa does not return home from school. Instead, she boards a bus to the Pacific coast with Tom s, a boy she barely knows. He seems to represent everything her life is lacking―recklessness, impulse, independence.

Tom s may also help Luisa fulfill an unusual obsession: she wants to track down a traveling troupe of Ukrainian dwarfs. According to newspaper reports, the dwarfs recently escaped a Soviet circus touring Mexico. The imagined fates of these performers fill Luisa's surreal dreams as she settles in a beach community in Oaxaca. Surrounded by hippies, nudists, beachcombers, and eccentric storytellers, Luisa searches for someone, anyone, who will "promise, no matter what, to remain a mystery." It is a quest more easily envisioned than accomplished. As she wanders the shoreline and visits the local bar, Luisa begins to disappear dangerously into the lives of strangers on Zipolite, the "Beach of the Dead."

Meanwhile, her father has set out to find his missing daughter. A mesmeric portrait of transgression and disenchantment unfolds. Sea Monsters is a brilliantly playful and supple novel about the moments and mysteries that shape us.