Rooted in a Chicana/Latina/indigenous geographic and cultural sensibility, the stories offlesh to bonetake on the force of myth, old and new, giving voice to those who experience the disruption and violence of the borderlands. In these nine tales, silva metes out a furious justice-a whirling, lyrical energy-that scatters the landscape with bones of transformation, reclamation, and healing.

...Anoriginal and authentic voice...with a unique vision. A blend of indigenismo and folktales retold in a modern vein...these stories come from the clouds, from spirits of ancient ancestors, from the oblique corners of the human consciousness...A new and engaging duende is born.- AlejandroMurguia, author ofThis War Called Love

If Chagall hadwritten, he would have painted words in the fierce brushstrokes of ire'ne lara silva's stories. IfRemedios Varohad told stories, she would have wound thetendrils of her magic the way ire'ne lara silva paints her world.- Cecile Pineda, authorDevil's Tango: How I Learned theFukushima Step by Step

ire'ne lara silva writes about what's between dark shadow and daylight, when, as on the Day of the Dead, we are so aware of the sacred. Though fiction, ire'ne's prose seems to transform into chanting verse.- Dagoberto Gilb, authorofBefore the End, After the Beginning:Stories

In her brilliant fiction debut,flesh to bone,ire'ne lara silva uses hauntingly lyrical language to tell stories cast in the Latin American tradition of Juan Rulfo and Maria Luisa Bombal. But, do not mistake this work for magical realism. The fantastical elements, raw voices, and shifting realities inhabit an emotional, psychological, and all-too-physical landscape of loss and violence. Life-affirming and intense, the stories sweep us into another world where we come face to face with the deepest truths. Brava!- Norma Cant, author ofCancula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en laFrontera