Posthumous work of poet Enrique Servín published

Chihuahua, Chih., An unpublished text of 428 pages, written by the poet Enrique Servín, was published by Medusa Editores with the title The book of things that do not exist, after having been rescued from a three and a half inch floppy disk, found among the author’s documents, clothing and personal belongings after his murder, in 2019.

It is a posthumous book about Samássaran, an invented world that describes its wonderful flora and fauna, people, ancient stories, poems, conquest expeditions, religious customs and more stories, with such vastness and literary quality that when reading it one cannot help but remember Borges, Italo Calvino or Milorad Pavicexplained Édgar Trevizo, director of Medusa, a Chihuahuan publishing label.

The text was found in a digital file, on a floppy disk from 2007 that was still working, Hence I consider it a miracle, since this book should not exist, given the fragility of that support. The text was rescued and we began discussions with his family to edit it..

Enrique Servín was murdered in his home in 2019, “a fact that we will not tire of denouncing, since it has not been clarified; Much was lost along with his life.

He had an overwhelming memory; He was a polyglot, poet and anthropologist who dedicated himself to the training of writers, the preservation of the indigenous languages ​​of the Sierra Tarahumara, the learning of languages ​​and their writing; We lost all that when they killed him; His computer was stolen and we feared that all his work had also been lost.

Friends very close to Servín have searched for documents among his belongings. Until now, several unpublished poems have also been found, but this book, of 428 pages, is extremely important, because in it he exercises something that fascinated him: fantastic literature, a genre that he never published during his lifetime, surely due to his high self-demand.

Enrique Servín officially published three literary books, not including the Rarámuri language manual; “we knew that he had other books, at least two novels and The book of things that do not exist recalled the writer Noel René Cisneros, prologue writer of the book and friend of the author.

He was very suspicious of showing unpublished works; I think it had to do with the insecurity he felt about showing himself. He had a fear equal to the insecurity of going on stage, but with his books; since 2004 he showed us some fragments; It is a fragmentary book, but not because I did not want to finish it. This is because of the genre it aspires to, it shows in the details, like a glossary that is made up of only three letters, but it is intentional.

The book of things that do not exist It is divided into three parts: The book of names, The books of languages ​​that do not exist and Alphabets of possible universes. The first covers geographies and a world with a multitude of moons, where there are gigantic bells made of gold, floating rocks, monuments of light and beasts from dreams; This world makes sense and is explained in natural terms, even if it is a tree whose fruits are angels – here, more than creating fantastic literature, Servín makes science fiction: fantastic plants and animals that are explained in terms of botany and zoology, which It is also related to what writers like Ken Liu or Ted Chiang have done.

The work is sold for 400 pesos, a price lower than the cost of publishing, thanks to the support of the Institute of Culture of the municipality of Chihuahua. It will have national distribution and can also be purchased through Medusa Editores’ social networks.