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 THE MAW//LA FAUCE

// a novel by //

Mario Reinaldo Machado

The trees appeared overnight, blown in with a storm. A biological impossibility, but only on paper. Suddenly the forest is real, an environmental disaster of unknown proportions that has gripped the eastern seaboard.

For Miguel del Campos, whose suburban neighborhood has been replaced by a teeming forest overnight, this new reality brings many things. As the grandson of migrants from the distant land of Clara Vista, Miguel soon finds this new landscape to be haunted by the ghosts of generations past and present and of places both near and far. Stuck within it, he has no choice but to confront the alienation he has always felt: from himself, from his family, from his culture, and from nature itself. 

But with the trees slowly invading his home, this perspective is dwarfed by the power of an unadulterated wilderness. The struggle to survive soon takes precedence.

If it were just him, he might be resigned to his fate, but he is not alone. There is his oldest son, Luca, distant and withdrawn, a familiar stranger to Miguel in many ways. And there is his young daughter, Pilar, curious and determined despite the fears that the trees have brought to the surface.

As the family ventures out into the woods, a terrifying sound—the maw—proves capable of changing things that should not be changed, of warping space and time. To survive, they have no choice but to contend with the terrible contradictions within themselves and this new world. They have no choice but to rely on each other in ways that test the roles that society and family have conditioned them to play. All the while, the seasons of their lives ratchet by as an untimely winter quickly descends.