How fiction is falling prey to its own vision of dystopia

First the soldiers came for those with mohawks. Then they came for the hairdressers themselves.

- Tom Phillips

“They were good kids,” quips the narrator in one of the latest tales by Michelle Recinos, “although I’d never trusted them with my hair.”

The round-up unfolds in Barberos en huelga (Barbers on Strike), a short story by the Salvadoran author in which she chronicles a nation’s descent into repression and paranoia.

The disturbing satire is set in a fictional place called San Carlos. But her real-life inspiration is obvious to anyone who has been following the 17-month crackdown in El Salvador.

And the critique appears to have upset the government.

Recinos’s collection of short stories was due to feature at a book fair in neighbouring Guatemala celebrating Salvadoran literature. But, according to the author and her publisher, her appearance was cancelled after pressure from El Salvador’s embassy.

“We want to stress our disappointment with the position of the Salvadoran government, which we believe limits freedom of expression as well as freedom of publication,” Recinos’s Guatemala-based publisher said.

The prize-winning author, meanwhile, complained on Twitter: “Is it a bummer? Yes, it bloody is. Will they silence us? Nope.”