EasterBlack-owned or founded brands at TargetGroceryClothing, Shoes & AccessoriesBabyHomeFurnitureKitchen & DiningOutdoor Living & GardenToysElectronicsVideo GamesMovies, Music & BooksSports & OutdoorsBeautyPersonal CareHealthPetsHousehold EssentialsArts, Crafts & SewingSchool & Office SuppliesParty SuppliesLuggageGift IdeasGift CardsClearanceTarget New ArrivalsTarget Finds#TargetStyleTop DealsTarget Circle DealsWeekly AdShop Order PickupShop Same Day DeliveryRegistryRedCardTarget CircleFind Stores

The Animal on the Rock - by Daniela Tarazona (Paperback)

The Animal on the Rock - by  Daniela Tarazona (Paperback) - 1 of 1
$16.95 when purchased online
Target Online store #3991

About this item

Highlights

  • The sun gives me comfort.
  • About the Author: Daniela Tarazona (Mexico City, 1975) is the author of Divided Island, winner of the prestigious Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize and published by Deep Vellum in 2024.
  • 100 Pages
  • Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary

Description



About the Book



"With a precise and visceral style, Daniela Tarazona presents the clinical course of a radical mutation - a change whose physiological symptoms emerge from a more intimate evolution. After the death of her mother, Irma decides to take a plane and hole up on a faraway beach. Through the course of her grief, the protagonist's body, her instincts, and her perception, begin to experience a transformation as unexpected as it is natural. The skin over her joints become thick and scaly, her eyes take on a yellow gleam, and she spends more and more time bathing in the hot sun. In these pages, Tarazona manages to address the perennial literary theme of metamorphosis, without relying on simple fantasy or didactic symbolism. More than a fable or a supernatural diversion, The Animal on the Rock is a profoundly biological and introspective novel with universal resonances"--



Book Synopsis



The sun gives me comfort. The temperature outside calibrates the temperature of my body, and I know I am immortal when I'm on a rock.

After Irma's mother dies, she boards a plane to the coast. Soon she is consumed by strange dreams and irrational fears, and her body begins to transform in ways as unexpected as they are natural. The skin over her joints grows thick and scaly, her eyes take on a yellow gleam, and the border between reality and delirium becomes first elastic, then irrelevant. As the world around her tips out of balance-the weather turning volatile, strangers issuing cryptic warnings--she returns again and again to the rock where she undergoes metamorphosis: a series of radical mutations that enable her to survive.

Elemental and prophetic, intimate and universal, The Animal on the Rock bears witness to the terror and magnificence of being a child, a parent, a changing animal. A profoundly biological and introspective novel that lies somewhere between clinical record and fever dream.



Review Quotes




"Daniela Tarazona's aesthetic appeals to the evocative power of literature. Magnificent, exacting, rich with emotion and meaning." -Jury of the Sor Juana Inéeacute;s de la Cruz Prize 2022

"[The Animal on the Rock] seems to me to be one of the most original prose works of the Mexican century so far." --Christopher Domíiacute;nguez Michael, El Universal

"I don't think that there is now, in Mexico, a literary mind more original than Daniela Tarazona's. Her books are as disconcerting as they are brilliant. Her ability to generate powerful, enigmatic images in the brains of her readers, dazzling." --Álvaro Enrigue, author of You Dreamed of Empires


"The metamorphosis undertaken by Daniela Tarazona in The Animal on the Rock reaches its full form here, which, paradoxically, is not a form but rather its dissolution: a way of disappearing in words. The author has become writing. In her place, another woman who is pure language has left for an island with the intention of committing suicide. Or rather, a woman--the same, another, which one, none--has not left for an island... I happen to understand and not understand this book. But it is in what I do not understand where I can best experience its atrocious lucidity as a chill of beauty and truth." --Luis Felipe Fabre, author of Recital of the Dark Verses


"This is a novel about the electricity that inhabits us, sometimes predictably, sometimes like a lightning storm in the brain. It is also about a writer's relationship with her mother and about how fragile memory and language are. But above all it is about the terrible lucidity that comes with being abnormal, and how poetry is the only science that allows us to understand what someone with that lucidity sees." --Yuri Herrera, author of Ten Planets

"After the death of her mother, a woman named Irma holes up on a faraway beach to grieve and, the process, undergoes a supernatural metamorphosis in the Mexican author's latest." --The Millions




About the Author



Daniela Tarazona (Mexico City, 1975) is the author of Divided Island, winner of the prestigious Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize and published by Deep Vellum in 2024. In 2012, she published the novel El beso de la liebre (Alfaguara), which was shortlisted for the Las Américas Prize in 2013. In 2020, the book Clarice Lispector: La mirada en el jardín (Lumen) was published, co-written by Tarazona and Nuria Mel. Her work has been translated into English and French. She has been a fellow of Mexico's Young Artists program and is currently a member of the FONCA fund's National Network of Artists. In 2011, she was recognized as one of twenty-five Latin American literary secrets by the Guadalajara International Book Fair. The Animal on the Rock was her debut novel, and is her second to be translated into English.


Lizzie Davis is a translator, a writer, and former senior editor at Coffee House Press. Her recent translations include Juan Cárdenas's Ornamental (a finalist for the 2021 PEN Translation Prize) and The Devil of the Provinces; Elena Medel's The Wonders, co-translated with Thomas Bunstead; and work by Valeria Luiselli, Pilar Fraile Amador, and Daniela Tarazona.


Kevin Gerry Dunn is a ghostwriter and Spanish/English translator whose book-length projects include Easy Reading by Cristina Morales (for which he received an English PEN Award and a PEN/Heim Grant) and work by Paul B. Preciado, María Bastarós, Elaine Vilar Madruga, Ousman Umar, Daniela Tarazona, Javier Castillo, Paco Cerdà, and Cristian Perfumo.

Dimensions (Overall): 7.0 Inches (H) x 5.0 Inches (W) x .44 Inches (D)
Weight: .38 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 100
Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres
Sub-Genre: Literary
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
Format: Paperback
Author: Daniela Tarazona
Language: English
Street Date: September 9, 2025
TCIN: 94577631
UPC: 9781646053971
Item Number (DPCI): 247-38-4361
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported

Shipping details

Estimated ship dimensions: 0.44 inches length x 5 inches width x 7 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 0.38 pounds
We regret that this item cannot be shipped to PO Boxes.
This item cannot be shipped to the following locations: American Samoa (see also separate entry under AS), Guam (see also separate entry under GU), Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico (see also separate entry under PR), United States Minor Outlying Islands, Virgin Islands, U.S., APO/FPO

Return details

This item can be returned to any Target store or Target.com.
This item must be returned within 90 days of the date it was purchased in store, shipped, delivered by a Shipt shopper, or made ready for pickup.
See the return policy for complete information.

Trending Fiction

Do Not Disturb - by Freida McFadden

$11.98 - $20.99
was $17.99 - $32.99 New lower price
Save $5 when you spend $25 on select books
5 out of 5 stars with 12 ratings

Fourth Wing - by Rebecca Yarros

$13.88 - $15.00
Select items on sale
Save $5 when you spend $25 on select books
4.7 out of 5 stars with 619 ratings

Related Categories

Get top deals, latest trends, and more.

Privacy policy

Footer

About Us

About TargetCareersNews & BlogTarget BrandsBullseye ShopSustainability & GovernancePress CenterAdvertise with UsInvestorsAffiliates & PartnersSuppliersTargetPlus

Help

Target HelpReturnsTrack OrdersRecallsContact UsFeedbackAccessibilitySecurity & FraudTeam Member ServicesLegal & Privacy

Stores

Find a StoreClinicPharmacyTarget OpticalMore In-Store Services

Services

Target Circle™Target Circle™ CardTarget Circle 360™Target AppRegistrySame Day DeliveryOrder PickupDrive UpFree 2-Day ShippingShipping & DeliveryMore Services
PinterestFacebookInstagramXYoutubeTiktokTermsCA Supply ChainPrivacy PolicyCA Privacy RightsYour Privacy ChoicesInterest Based AdsHealth Privacy Policy