• They Will Dream by Gabriela Damián Mirave. Translated by Adrian Demopulos (Rosarium Publishing, 2023)

By Warner Holme: Gabriela Damián Mirave’s They Will Dream in the Garden is a collection of the author’s stories freshly translated from Spanish into English. 

Featuring many pieces that range from horror to fantasy, they often slip into a nebulous area that doesn’t fit either traditional American genre exceptionally well. A pair of stories illustrate this expertly, both dealing in similar themes and ideas without remotely repeating in plot.

“La Purificación” deals with a woman describing, in first person present tense with sensory experience that slowly makes its way to discussions of foodstuffs used to celebrate the Dead. It is all very matter of fact, feeling simultaneously like the reminiscences of an adult or the experiences of a young woman. This leads, ultimately, into visions which allow her to look at the past experience of life and commune with those whom she considers long lost.

The titular story is placed at the end, with a woman making plans for a pilgrimage of sorts even as her loved ones see it as a terrible or foolhardy idea. It is a setup with a fair degree of understanding which is added to by the idea of something not quite a normal way of telling a story, starting with its status as first person future tense. It is a woman calmly and carefully explaining what she expects to happen on a trip to experience a certain mystical cleansing. Indeed, the fact that most of the characters go with only titles or positions rather than names lends itself to the theoretical rather than experienced for the woman in question.

Themes related to celebrating life and appreciating the dead give only the most surface level for these two stories. Generation gaps, the pain of memory, and the need for closure are all key to the themes of this particular book. Mysticism being discussed in the same breath as telecommunications and corporate issues. Yet rather than feeling like a setup for urban fantasy, there is a world where natural reality can see these ideas as no more novel than peaches and cream. Still the beauty of even the most disturbing of these is undeniable, a delightful reminder of not only the skill of the author but the dignified and celebratory way one can see the passage of time.

Unlike many anthologies this collection adds little in the way of secondary material, introductions, afterwards, and explanations for individual stories. This is not in and of itself a condemnation as the tales are indeed the primary aspect of any such volume. Nonetheless it will leave readers comparatively in the dark as to Gabriela Damián Mirave’s process as well as her translator’s particular decisions.

The fact these stories are freshy translated is very nice, a new look at a celebrated set of genre works. While there is of course unevenness to the quality, that is only to be expected when dealing with an anthology be it from one author or many. Curious parties would do well to check out this collection, as they are likely to find more than one piece to interest them.