Don't Leave Her Alone

THE SPANISH BESTSELLER

"Full of tenderness and delirium, moving between suburban realism and fairy tale." —Mariana Enríquez

"A darkly enchanted expedition into the eviscerating oblivion of motherhood. de Fez writes with her sharpest knife." —Rachel Yoder

"An eldritch Pedro Almodóvar nightmare" (Clay McLeod Chapman) that glitters in its feverish propulsion, following three mothers in the hushed suburbs of Barcelona, who are awakened by the monsters that live inside of them.

Alba has always clung to her mother, Carmen: to run errands or simply validate every anxiety she’s ever had. Yet nothing can silence the fears Alba refuses to confront. They simmer, then burst, but never quite erupt, and each time, Carmen is found at her side. Meanwhile, Alba’s sister, Diana, struggles herself, juggling the demands of motherhood and work, but cannot recall when Carmen last tended to her.

Two days before Christmas, Alba drags Carmen to the mall. There, she runs into the formidable “widows.” The pair approach Alba and put an evil eye on her. Her nose starts to bleed, which is how Alba knows. Then, on Christmas Eve, Alba disappears, and Diana and Carmen collapse from the pain in their bellies, where a deep gash splits their purging stomachs. As the tensions the three women have long held in explode, they’re finally forced to confront the terror that connects them.

Haunting, cinematic, and strikingly visceral, Don’t Leave Her Alone is an incisive exploration of motherhood that interrogates women’s struggle for autonomy and identity, and ultimately forces the question: What does it take to finally break free?