“Cartuchos de feria” is a collection of nine short stories. The cover represents nine cow bells. In Spanish we say that someone “está como un cencerro” is like a cow bell to say that the person is a bit mad. Like the short stories in this book.

1. What a Chinese story

   A young Chinese man is helped to discover his inner full potential in the most strange of ways.

2. First it is necessary to meet each other

   A girl meets a boy in the park. They go for a walk and talk and talk and talk. Towards the end of the day they find out that to fall in love with each other they need to meet first.

3. The case of the red hat

   An experienced Dublin private detective receives a very simple and clear case but little by little he is pushed over the edge and he will need to break the rules not to go mad.

4. Mess in a submarine

   A little girl has a dream in which her family runs a family size submarine during war. Things get complicated when they capture an enemy soldier.

5. Hands for feet

   Three people meet in a lift that gets stuck in between floors outside office hours. To get out of there they will need to find out all the connections that brought them together into that lift in the first place.

6. The blue shirt

   A renowned expert in the chaos theory and author of “the wrong zone theory” participates in a science convention. He realises he doesn’t remember having a blue shirt. The one he is wearing.

7. The cage of the ogre and the three sheep

   A bunch of animals and an ogre part on an odd adventure to save the king. But they have already been there, done that.

8. We don’t leave anybody behind

   A man leaves a bar late at night with a few drinks on him and after having a serious discussion about this thing called love. He thinks he’s seen the light; the problem now is how to tell his wife when he gets home.

9. No body screams

   A seriously injured hunter tries to find his way out of the jungle but his damaged leg quickly deteriorates just when he reaches the coast.

Summary of Josian Pastor’s note in book’s back cover

If you could imagine blending the characters of Alice in Wonderland in a scene from a Marx brothers’ movie with the sense of humor of Monty Phyton —and make it reasonably acceptable—, you could start entering the fantastic and hyper realistic worlds that populate the pages of this book.

Sergio Vilchez Vidal is a refreshing author in the literature kaleidoscope, cutting his stories to bring the reader from the out loud laughter to the “happy zombie” state. Difficult to classify, Sergio Vilchez Vidal masters the art of dressing his stories with a blend of schizophrenia, viscera-realism and touches of the absurd.