Tears of the Trufflepig
Fernando A. Flores

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Photo by Eric Morales

The Texas and Mexico border is re-imagined in this creative speculative fiction noir about a future where human and animal lives are even further commodified. 

In a small South Texas city, an investigative journalist is researching a story about elite dinners organized and held secretly by the wealthy with dishes made from long extinct "filtered" animals - synthetically created and only capable of living a few weeks or months. He befriends a local, an old widower named Bellacosa, and the two attend one of these dinners.

Bellacosa's missing brother then appears, in an altered state, and he suspects it has something to do with the "filtering" syndicates. He's then taken hostage and forced to use peyote and link up with a filtered Trufflepig, a mystical animal worshiped by an ancient civilization. He escapes, but only after a vivid dream-like encounter with his long dead wife and daughter. 

Flores paints a very bleak near future where most animals have gone extinct, a large chunk of humans died from a food shortage, and the border is even more militarized. Yet he seamlessly blends in observational humor and social commentary. The pacing is excellent and the ending will leave you pondering the lines among reality, fiction, and myth. 
A poignant satire about life along the border in an impossibly bleak future. 
Fernando A. Flores was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and raised in the U.S. Fernando was the recipient of a 2014 literary award from the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation. His fiction and poetry have appeared in various publications since 2006, and was featured as one of Ten Writers to Watch in the October 2015 issue of Texas Monthly.

Tears of the Trufflepig is publication by MCD x FSG Originals. Click here to purchase.
Reviewed by
Elliott Turner​
​5/29/2019
Elliott Turner is the author of The Night of the Virgin, one of "the top ten fiction books of 2017" according to TheLatinoAuthor.com. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Atticus Reviews, VICE, Fusion, SplitLip Mag, and Transect Magazine.
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