This post is part of the #ReadMoreLatam2021 Challenge. Click here for more info.
The challenge for this month is to read a book by a new-to-you writer.
There’s something both thrilling and distressing about finding a new writer who you either think you might love or realise you do love. Where have they been all this time? I hope they have a broad back catalogue I can now dig into!
Finding new writers can be tricky if all you rely on is the Amazon algorithm though. I tested this theory last night, circling through a number of my To Read writers and seeing what books got thrown up as recommended. Mostly they were the same, with a few exceptions.
My pick for this month was easy though. It’s a writer I’ve been itching to read for ages but wanted to wait until I could get a paperback copy of her book, translated by the excellent Charlotte Whittle. Yes, that’s right: Norah Lange.
Not got a writer immediately in mind? Enter: this list of recommendations, with one writer per Latin American country, excluding French Guiana (apologies).
As usual, my recommendations for September include books I’ve read or simply books I want to read and review.
Recommendations
Argentina—Mona by Pola Oloixarac (trans. Adam Morris)
Belize—Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell
Bolivia—Tierra fresca de su tumba by Giovanna Rivero
Brazil—Flesh and Bone and Water by Luiza Sauma
Chile—Humiliation by Paulina Flores (trans. Megan McDowell)
Colombia—Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Costa Rica—Maybe Managua by Catalina Murillo
Cuba—Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez (trans. Christina MacSweeney)
Dominican Republic—Aquí hubo una mujer by Kianny N. Antigua
Ecuador—Jawbone by Monica Ojeda (trans. Sarah Booker)
El Salvador—Maletas Perdidas by Jacinta Escudos
French Guiana—¿? (sorry!)
Guadeloupe—The Restless by Gerty Dambury (trans. Judith G. Miller)
Guatemala—Las flores by Denis Phé-Funchal
Guyana—Tide Running by Oonya Kempadoo
Haiti—American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Honduras—That’s What You Get by Sheila Maldonado
Martinique—The Dancing Other by Suzanne Dracius
Mexico—Oda a la soledad y a todo aquello que pudimos ser y no fuimos porque así somos by Gisela Leal
Nicaragua—For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
Panama—The Go-Between by Veronica Chambers
Paraguay—(lupa) by Lia Colombino
Peru—Little Bird by Claudia Ulloa Donoso (trans. Lily Meyer)
Puerto Rico—Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera
Suriname—Reconstruction by Karin Amatmoekrim (trans. Sarah Timmer Harvey)
Uruguay—Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende (trans. Tim Gutteridge)
Venezuela—Malasangre by Michelle Roche Rodríguez
No Comments