Sci-Fi

What happens when your life becomes unrecognisable overnight? In this imaginative debut collection, Ruben Reyes Jr. blends speculative fiction, magical realism, and dark humour to explore the experiences of Salvadoran immigrants and their descendants. An ordinary man wakes up to discover he has become a famous reggaetón star. An elderly grandmother gradually transforms into a marionette puppet. A researcher uncovers a disturbing programme that turns the bodies of undocumented migrants into artificial labourers. Moving between alternate histories, dystopian futures, and surreal versions of everyday life, these stories explore the forces that shape Central American identity. Family ties stretch across borders, technology offers unsettling solutions to human problems, and bureaucratic systems reduce lives to statistics. Beneath the collection’s strange and often absurd scenarios lies a serious examination of migration, colonial legacies, capitalism, and the struggle to be heard in a world that marginalises certain voices. Both inventive and deeply human, There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven challenges readers to reconsider whose stories are told—and what it costs to build a new life far from home.