Excerpt from You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"You need to discuss that in person with the Boss," said the secretary.

Ofelia wrote down the address. She went there on Monday with a plastic purse containing the money that she had received for her birthday. The place turned out to be a tattoo parlor on the second story of a covered market. There was a young metalhead in the waiting room, doing a crossword. The secretary was just as Ofelia had imagined her: incredibly pretty. Her paperweight was a crystal ball in which snow fell endlessly on a tiny house. When she looked up at Ofelia, her fake lashes rose like fans.

"The Boss is waiting for you," she said.

When Ofelia went into the office, the Boss was hunched over the desk, inhaling a dust of fine crystals from a pocket mirror. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand, secreted the mirror in a drawer, and tidied his black hair, which was glossy with gel. He had a dazzling white smile. Ofelia liked his close-fitting shirt, with its fine white, black, and orange stripes, and sleeves rolled up to the elbows. It was a hot day, but the room was icy, although she couldn't see air-conditioning anywhere. There was a tropical picture on the wall: a toucan perched in a palm tree, the kind of thing junk dealers sell.

The Boss invited her to take a seat and looked her over from head to foot.

"I was starting to wonder what was taking you so long," he said.

He brought his face close to Ofelia's: in the aroma that he gave off, there was a strong note of aniseed, which she found unpleasant. He inquired about her heart's desire. She whispered it into his ear, relieved to get it off her chest. The Boss nodded, unperturbed.

"Other girls have asked for stranger things," he remarked.

She felt a tremendous sympathy for the Boss.

"How much does it cost?" she asked, nervously clutching her purse.

"All I need is a little signature."

He placed a book in front of her: it was sturdily bound, and the pages were covered with the signatures of many other girls. Considering who he was, the Boss had surprisingly shaky hands and long, dirty fingernails, Ofelia thought. The scene was very familiar to her from the catechism books at school, and she was surprised how easy it was to give up the Kingdom of Heaven. Who cared about the choir of angels if she could have the mint-colored eyes of her dreams... ? She gripped the silver-plated pen firmly and inscribed her signature in large round letters: for the dot on the "i," she drew a heart. She didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. Hardly anything, in fact: just the gentle flutter of memories escaping her, an incapacity to summon up the textures of jungle fruit and the faces of the village children, long treasured images fading away, like the ribbon of starry sky between the branches of the trees ... But what is no longer remembered cannot be missed, and she was in a hurry to become someone else.

"Now look at me," he said, as he lifted her chin.

Ofelia looked up to take in the world with her new eyes. She wanted to believe that the crude painting of the toucan would start to morph into the dreamed-of landscape of her father's homeland. But all she saw was the dark light emanating from the Boss's eyes as if spilling from an overturned jug.

Dazzled by her own reflection, she drew closer to give him a kiss.

Excerpted from You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colzani. Copyright © 2024 by Liliana Colzani. Excerpted by permission of New Directions Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.