Latin American Literature

Jenny Diski was a fearless writer, for whom no subject was too difficult, even her own cancer diagnosis. Her columns in the London Review of Books - selected here by her editor and friend Mary-Kay Wilmers, on subjects as various as death, motherhood, sexual politics and the joys of solitude - have been described as ‘virtuoso performances’ and ‘small masterpieces'. Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told? is a collective interrogation of the universal experience from a very particular psyche.

Award-winning author Suzanne Chazin returns with a stirring novel of deadly misdeeds and heartbreaking choices in a seasoned homicide cop's hometown. A split-second decision thrusts Detective Jimmy Vega into the epicenter of a disturbing case when a body is found near a gathering place for immigrants in upscale Lake Holly, New York. The cold-bloodedness of the crime and the innocence of the victim torment Vega. But so does the feeling that he's to blame.

Ramón López nació en la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México, pero está decidido a salir y abrazar el sueño americano, y no está seguro si su complicada familia es una ayuda o un obstáculo. Hijo de inmigrantes, a medida que Ramón crece, su admiración por su padre emprendedor se agria al ver cómo sus sueños de éxito se marchitan. Su madre se encuentra constantemente preocupada por su hermano menor, quien lucha contra una discapacidad intelectual.

La lista de sospechosos de tanta desgracia y vergüenza nacional incluye al presidente Plutarco Elías Calles, al fundador de la crom, Luis N. Morones, a la renombrada madre Conchita, y a una serie de oscuros personajes encumbrados del clero de México, quienes organizaron un boicot comercial a nivel nacional para poner de rodillas al gobierno y cerraron los templos para privar de consuelo espiritual a la feligresía y enardecerla.

Totalmente revista e atualizada pelo autor–professor titular de Literatura Brasileira na USP–essa obra consagrada aos estudantes universitários, professores e pós-graduados, é tida como a melhor do gênero. Está divida em oito partes: Condição Colonial, Barroco, Arcádia e Ilustração, Romantismo, Realismo, Pré-Modernismo, Modernismo e Tendências Contemporâneas e História da Literatura Brasileira.

Widely acclaimed as a progenitor of 20th-century Latin American fiction, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil's greatest writer. His prodigious output of novels, plays, and stories rivaled contemporaries like Chekhov, Flaubert, and Maupassant, but, shockingly, he was barely translated into English until 1963, and still lacks proper recognition today.

Esposa de Diego Rivera y, después, del poeta y crítico Jorge Cuesta, autor insigne de los Contemporáneos, María Guadalupe Marín Preciado, Lupe Marín (1895-1983), fue protagonista de una época esplendorosa y musa de una pléyade de creadores como Xavier Villaurrutia y Juan Soriano, además de ejercer una influencia poderosa sobre hijos y nietos, herederos de un legado tan deslumbrante como imperioso. Una vida extraordinaria que sólo puede contarse en una novela.

Blending fact and fiction, Colombiano is a powerful and heart-rending story of revenge and war, set in Colombia. All Pedro Gutiérrez cares about is fishing, playing pool and his girlfriend Camila’s promise to sleep with him on his 16th birthday. But his life is ripped apart when guerrilla soldiers callously execute his father in front of him, and he and his mother are banished from their farm.

Carly Castillo has only ever known Fish Village. Her grandmother claims that they descend from the Karankawas, an indigenous Texas people once believed to be extinct, thereby tethering them to Galveston. But as Carly ages, she begins to imagine a life elsewhere, undefined by her family’s history. Meanwhile, her boyfriend and all-star shortstop turned seaman, Jess, treasures the salty, familiar air. He’s gotten chances to leave Galveston for bigger cities with more possibilities. But he didn’t take them then, and he sure as hell won’t now.

Marianela es una joven pobre, deforme y menospreciada por todo el mundo. Solo encuentra consuelo y un hombro sobre el que apoyarse en Pablo, el hijo ciego del dueño de las minas de Socartes, a quien la desdichada muchacha hace las veces de lazarillo.

The Mill on the Floss, first published in 1860, tells the story of Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom as they grow from children to young adults in the small rural town of St. Ogg's, England. Intelligent and passionate, Maggie yearns to develop her mind and break free of the constraints of her provincial village. Though she loves her brother above anyone else, Tom's rigid, pragmatic personality often conflicts with Maggie's headstrong nature, with increasingly tragic consequences.

Anna Hall was a beautiful and skilled Second World War air force operative, guiding RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain - before a bomb killed her sister and left her disfigured. In the aftermath, haunted by her failure to keep her sister safe, Anna retreats to a posting in the countryside - until a chance encounter spins her life in a new direction.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.

On a frigid, January night, a blond, blue-eyed high school girl walks out of an English class she tutors for immigrants - and vanishes. Suspicion quickly falls on the men she was teaching, many of whom are undocumented. As disturbing evidence trickles in, news of the incident spreads beyond the scenic town of Lake Holly, New York, unearthing deep-seated fears and enflaming cultural tensions. For county police detective Jimmy Vega, the situation is personal.

Pudgy, scowling Ogden Ford, spoiled child of divorced parents with far more money than is good for them, is "the Little Nugget" - the El Dorado of the American kidnapping industry. When Ogden's father sends him to an isolated English preparatory school, Mr. Peter Burns, gentleman of leisure - persuaded by his brand new fiancee - becomes a master at the school in order to steal the Nugget and take him back to his doting mother.

Panorama imprescindible del estado actual de la microficción centroamericana, a través de voces diversas, las cuales son un reflejo, sobre todo, de los distintos intereses literarios dentro de este género. Estas voces que se encuentran permeadas, muchas veces, por los conflictos más internos de esta región de América en tantas ocasiones olvidada. Esperemos que los lectores disfruten de esta breve pero intensa antología.

Growing up the youngest of seven children in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente had a talent for baseball. His incredible skill soon got him drafted into the big leagues, where he spent 18 seasons playing right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who Was Roberto Clemente? tells the story of this remarkable athlete: A 12-time All-Star, a World Series MVP, and the first Latin American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Carmen and Grace have been inseparable since they were little girls—more like sisters than cousins, survivors of a childhood marked by neglect and addiction and a system that never valued them. For too long, all they had was each other. That is, until Doña Durka swept into their lives and changed everything, taking Grace into her home, providing stability and support, and playing an outsize role in Carmen’s upbringing too.

Marisol vanished during the Cuban Revolution, disappearing with hardly a trace. Now, shaped by atrocities long-forgotten, her foul-mouthed spirit visits her nephew, Ramon, in modern-day New Jersey. Her hope: That her presence will prompt him to unearth their painful family history. Ramon launches a haphazard investigation into the story of his ancestor, unaware of the forces driving him on his search. Along the way, he falls in love, faces a run-in with a murderous gangster, and uncovers the lives of the lost saints who helped Marisol during her imprisonment.

In Caracas, Venezuela, Adelaida Falcon stands over an open grave. Alone, except for harried undertakers, she buries her mother - the only family Adelaida has ever known. Numb with grief, Adelaida returns to the apartment they shared. Outside the window that she tapes shut every night - to prevent the tear gas raining down on protesters in the streets from seeping in. When looters masquerading as revolutionaries take over her apartment, Adelaida resists and is beaten up. It is the beginning of a fight for survival in a country that has disintegrated into violence and anarchy.