His Name was Death

Never before in English, this legendary precursor to eco-fiction turns the coming insect apocalypse on its head

A Wall Street Journal Best Science Fiction Book of 2021

A bitter drunk forsakes civilization and takes to the Mexican jungle, trapping animals, selling their pelts to buy liquor for colossal benders, and slowly rotting away in his fetid hut. His neighbors, a clan of the Lacodón tribe of Chiapas, however, see something more in him than he does himself (dubbing him Wise Owl): when he falls deathly ill, a shaman named Black Ant saves his life―and, almost by chance, in driving out his fever, she exorcises the demon of alcoholism as well. Slowly recovering, weak in his hammock, our antihero discovers a curious thing about the mosquitoes’ buzzing, “which to human ears seemed so irritating and pointless.” Perhaps, in fact, it constituted a language he might learn―and with the help of a flute and a homemade dictionary―even speak. Slowly, he masters Mosquil, with astonishing consequences… Will he harness the mosquitoes’ global might? And will his new powers enable him to take over the world that’s rejected him? A book far ahead of its time, His Name Was Death looks down the double-barreled shotgun of ecological disaster and colonial exploitation―and cackles a graveyard laugh.

Rafael Bernal (1915-1972) was a Mexican diplomat and novelist, best known for his crime novels, including The Mongolian Conspiracy (New Directions).

Kit Schluter is the author of Cartoons (City Lights, 2024) and has recently translated books from the French and Spanish by Copi, bruno darío, Rafael Bernal, Mario Levrero, Marcel Schwob, Olivia Tapiero, and Enrique Vila-Matas. He lives in Mexico City.