Reservoir Bitches

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.

‘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.’

‘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.’

‘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.’

‘[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.’

‘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.’

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

‘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.’

‘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.’

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

‘A small monument to transgressive, tough, soft, romantic, painful literature … While the author beats us up, we re