The Dance and the Fire

Translated by Christina MacSweeney.

In a gripping new novel by acclaimed Mexican writer Daniel Saldaña París, three friends forever bound by erotic flames of the past reunite in a city engulfed by wildfires and an ecstatic dancing plague.

After years apart, three high school friends return to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where an intense love triangle left an indelible mark on their adolescence. The city, claustrophobic as wildfires press closer, reawakens the past and confronts them with their present: the entanglement of friendship and desire, the seemingly distant discovery of sexuality, complex parental relationships, and the daunting task of artistic fulfilment.

In the background, forces of chaos and destruction are a constant presence. As fires ravage the physical landscape, one of the friends begins choreographing an ecstatic dance inspired by the German Expressionist Mary Wigman and medieval Danse Macabre. What starts as a coping mechanism for the anxieties of disappearing youth and climate catastrophe becomes an overpowering, all-consuming hysteria. Mysterious powers are awakened, the boundary between reality and myth begins to blur, and the friends find themselves immersed in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain universe.

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Praise:

"Daniel Saldaña París’s new novel, The Dance and the Fire, has everything a reader could want: climate dystopia, hysterical dancing, and a long-standing love triangle . . . As the surrounding landscape succumbs, one friend seeks solace in dance. Inspired by German Expressionism and medieval danse macabre, the performance expands into something more intense than any of them anticipated, fracturing boundaries between the present world and the past, between myth and reality." — Vulture

"Poignant and compelling, this lyrical translation of Saldaña París’ depiction of youth foundering into maturity against the backdrop of chaos, hysteria, and destruction is a solid add for all literary collections." — Booklist

"Hallucinatory perception, the ephemeral nature of memory, and the intransience of art all come into play in this triptych of confessions from deepest Mexico. Here, Saldaña París leans less on the tragicomedy of the human condition to craft something a little darker and meaner about damaged people turning their hurt inward." — Kirkus

"This is a mesmerising novel of triangles: romantic, political, and environmental…a must read." — Morning Star

"A kaleidoscopic, erudite, and sweepingly tender novel reminiscent of Sebald, if Sebald was on acid. The Dance and the Fire’s power comes from the ambitious (yet brilliantly compacted) range of its themes—fatherhood, eros, art, judgment, personal and archival aporia—that culminate in a book as capacious, porous, and resonant as history itself." — Ocean Vuong, author of ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS

"An absorbing and alarming chimera of a novel in which past meets present, fantasy meets flesh, and individual malaise collides with the woes of a vast and unraveling society. Saldaña París is a deft and clever storyteller." — C. Pam Zhang, author of LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

"The Dance and the Fire is a wonder, brimming with hypnotic prose, wildly vivid descriptions, and intimately—and intricately—drawn characters. It’s as explosive as a wildfire, yet as precise and graceful as meticulously crafted choreography. All that remains is to dance." — Isaac Fitzgerald, author of DIRTBAG, MASSACHUSETTS

"The Dance and the Fire is exuberantly strange, dark, and comic; an enthralling ode to Cuernavaca and the modern rebirth of medieval choreomania, as well as a prophecy about what happens when the built-up dread of our world on fire begins to seep into the soul. Daniel Saldaña Paris is an extraordinary talent, and his novel feels both urgent and true." — Lauren Groff, author of THE VASTER WILDS

"The Dance and the Fire seems to catch fire on every page, seems to burn with jungle and bromeliads: it is a combustible book that alights with visions and cruelty." — La Repubblica

"Saldaña Paris' prose is subtle, and his intelligence diaphanous. But be aware: the characters and the stories that bring them together are ferocious." — Álvaro Enrigue, author of YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES