Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago's lung.
Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale she nurtures the
lung until it gains sentience growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden
within the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually Monstrilio begins to
resemble the Santiago he once was but his innate impulses--though curbed by his biological and
chosen family's communal care--threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life. A
thought-provoking meditation on grief acceptance and the monstrous sides of love and loyalty
Gerardo áSmano óCrdova blends bold imagination and evocative prose with deep emotional rigor.
Told in four acts that span the globe from Brooklyn to Berlin Monstrilio offers with uncanny
clarity a cathartic and precise portrait of being human.