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 bidding them goodnight, Diego – the household’s beloved guard dog – springs up and sinks his teeth into her hand. This unexpected incident is an assault not only on Flora’s body, but also upon those delicate fictions that have, until now, shaped her life and swathed that body in an illusory sense of safety.…