La Sombra del Sabino in Tepoztlan, Morelos

Just back from Mexico, where the Presidential election recount kept just about everyone except Madam Mayo awake half the night. (Click here for the best English-language webpage on the subject. And here for Madam Mayo's previous post.) Back to first person: On Saturday, I escaped from Mexico City to nearby Tepoztlan, to present Mexico: A Literary Traveler's Companion, my new anthology of Mexican fiction and literary prose, at Bridget Estavillo's cozy and coffee-perfumed bilingual bookstore, La Sombra del Sabino. The reading --- of my translation of Monica Lavin's short story "Day and Night"--- took place in the bookstore's garden, on a lawn that could have served for the national croquet championship. This was, by the way, in the shadow of the mist-enshrouded mountain, El Tepozteco, which appears in the book's cover painting by Mexican artist Elena Climent. And who showed up? Magda Bogin, of course! And she brought flyers for the upcoming Under the Volcano Writers Workshop. Oh, Tepoztlan... It is all too charming for words...