On a mid-90s night, my mother had a dream that started a difficult period in our life. She suffered from a mysterious illness, rooted in what physicians called a spiritual residue of events in her past. More than a decade after that night my mom spoke of the dream she had been hiding from every one. She spoke of an unknown and horrible living creature that grew rapidly in the dream, so that she had tried and failed to wake up, as in a state of limbo. My mother has only once been open to talk about that night and has always refused to answer any questions about the story of that night; a monster has been with her against her will. The Big Fish collection is a mental narration of twenty years of my life and my observations of the daily life of a woman who has been living with a tamed and wounded monster.