This fable-like novella about technologies of illusion and a life-changing friendship in Mexico City is enchanting This fable-like novella about technologies of illusion and a life-changing friendship in Mexico City is enchanting T he Shadow of the Object, the new novel from Mexican-American author Chloe Aridjis, opens with an eruption of violence: Flora, a fortysomething woman, is visiting her mother and stepfather in Mexico City for the first time in many years when one evening, as she is