Fear of Animals

A journey into the belly of corruption

Former crime reporter Evaristo Reyes trades his burning desire to publish for a life as a secret policeman and it costs him his marriage, peace of mind - and very nearly his freedom.

Immersed in the thuggish mire inhabited by Mexico's judicial police, he justifies the sacrifice of his artistic integrity as a necessary evil aimed at creative research – all the while enjoying the perks of his squalid position.

But when his brutish boss orders him to kill a marginal literary critic who has insulted the president, he identifies with the scribe - and then finds himself incriminated for a murder he fails to commit.

Fear of Animals by Enrique Serna is a deliriously corrosive satire that portrays Mexico's literary establishment to be as corrupt and hypocritical as the despised police force.

Enrique Serna is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary Mexican writers. His seven novels have been well received in Spanish markets. This is the first of Serna's novels to be translated into English and tt generated great resentment within Mexico's literary establishment when it first came out and gave the author much prominence.

'In our country, the authenticity of intellectual and journalistic postures is questionable, and the author is conscious that independent criticism also has its price, that intellectual labour is hardly recognised and that many talents are sold to the highest bidder… Serna gives form, body and content to the chaos of corruption and hypocrisy that reigns in two fundamental arenas of our country and our era.' – Revista Casa del Tiempo, Mexico

Enrique Serna
(1959-) lives in Mexico. His work has been extensively published and he is known throughout the Hispanic-speaking world. He is known for his irreverent and sarcastic take on Mexico's ruling cliques and the black humour and irony of his writing. He has published six other novels and two collections of short stories.