Dancing With the Tiger
by Lili Wright ’82
Putnam Penguin, July 2016
Lili Wright ’82 published her first novel, Dancing With the Tiger, with Putnam Penguin this summer to much acclaim. The novel is a thriller set against Mexico’s epidemic of drug violence, and the global controversy over the repatriation of cultural artifacts. The tale begins when a drug-addicted grave robber unearths an artifact he’s certain is of immense historical and monetary value. His decisions lead to a violent struggle for possession, involving a vicious drug lord, American expatriates, local Mexicans, and heroine Anna Ramsay, who has a complicated back story of her own. Lili writes with a deep understanding of Mexican culture; she spent a year in Oaxaca living with Mexican families, studying Spanish, working as a reporter, and running with the bulls.