Dance with Snakes

As El Salvador returns to peace after more than a decade of civil war, an unemployed sociologist assumes the identity of a homeless man who lives in a beat-up yellow Chevrolet. Also living in the Chevrolet are four poisonous snakes, and with these venomous new accomplices, the sociologist soon unleashes a reign of terror on the city. Dance with Snakes – translated from the Spanish by Lee Paula Springer – is a macabre, high-speed romp in which violence and comedy become barely distinguishable, and the action raises questions about social exclusion, the role of the media, and the tenderness of relations among those on society’s margins.