Where the dream ends / José Alcántara Almánzar ; edited by Lizabeth Parvisini-Gebert, Cecilia Graña-Rosa ; translations by Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert.

Cover ilustration from the painting: Vientos Huracanados (Hurricane winds) by Mariantonia Ordoñez.

Introduction / Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, 1 -- Stories. From Santo Domingo Times, 2004-2007, 17 -- Italian Concerto, 19 -- Payback, 23 -- The bad child's farewell, 25 -- Bad Omen, 29 -- From La carne estremecida [Trembling Flesh], 1989, 33 -- Lefty, 35 -- Eva's obsession, 46 Temprations, 49 -- Temptations, 61 -- Raw Skin, 73 -- Like a night with its legs open, 83 -- From las máscaras de la seducción [The masks of seduction], 1983, 95 -- The queen and her secret, 97 -- Lulú or the metamorphosis, 107 -- Traveler, 119 -- Noises, 131 -- He and she at the end of an afternoon, 141 -- From testimonios y profanaciones [Testimonies and desecrations], 1978, 149 -- Trivial chronicle of an intimate party, 151 -- With Papá at Madame Sophie's, 181 -- From Callejón sin salida [Dead end Alley], 1975, 197 -- The return, 199 -- Night of a Grey Moon, 219 -- Enigma, 231 -- My startling Irene, 239 -- From Viaje al otro mundo [Voyage to another world], 1973, 249 -- The test, 251 -- Seabound, 261 -- Voyage to another world, 267 -- The girl I met in Guadeloupe, 281.

“The short stories of José Alcántara Almánzar are an ideal point of entry into the thematic and stylistic wealth contemporary Dominican literature offers. ‘Moving, urgent, piercing’ is how critic Orlando Alcántara Fernández characterizes Alcántara Almánzar’s mastery of his craft, ‘his mark of identity as a writer from beginning to end.’. . . . Formally experimental and thematically innovative, the short stories of José Alcántara Almánzar showcase his willingness to deploy a range of techniques drawn from both his deep understanding of the psychology and social constraints of his characters and his command of the traditions of his chosen genre. From Edgar Allan Poe to Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar-to whom Alcántara Almánzar acknowledges a profound debt-his fiction is steeped in the history of the short story while pushing its technical and thematic boundaries into new directions.” -From the Introduction by Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert.