“A novel about the dark side of friendship and the convoluted pathways of desire. Claustrophobic and intense.”

“Starting with the plight of a migrant woman who, after breaking up with her partner, faces a situation that is complex both emotionally and administratively, Esquivel constructs a three-way relationship in which the questions of work and desire are delicately interwoven and often in conflict, and which are presented as very difficult to resolve.”

“Contradeseo is a sharp and claustrophobic novel that narrates the anxieties about the future of a character trapped in the web of romantic love and a precarious life, and who desperately seeks to escape what feels like a simulation.”

“With bright and disturbing glimmers, Contradeseo builds an atmosphere full of symbolism. An electric atmosphere. Gloria Susana Esquivel achieves a sort of coming-of-age novel, which ends up stripping the real precariousness of the middle class and the nightmare of simulated lives proposed by the United States bare. She masterfully seduces us with a disturbing and beautiful whirlwind. Readers will find in Silvia a fascinating character whom they will want to both save and be rid of. Because deep down, we have all been Silvia and we have all navigated the hostility of the world with the foolish candor of our twenties.”

“Gloria Susana’s writing is exquisite. It envelops you, takes you by the hand and at the same time surprises you, again and again, with its mastery and powerful imagery.”

“The aesthetic miracle of generating a unique world through words materializes in the hands of authors with the skill and talent of Gloria Susana Esquivel, who manages to turn generic situations into overflowing and charming tales.”