r/latamlit

Is there any news related to Latin American literature that you wish to share with the Sub?

Are you aware of any new book releases in the field of Latin American literature? Is there a literary event that you’d like to promote? Do you have any other pertinent information worth sharing here?

Thanks in advance!

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The main LatAmLit book release on my radar for the month of July yet again comes from our friends at Charco Press: One Hundred Guinea Pigs by Gustavo Rodríguez

Find a description of the forthcoming Peruvian novel, which is scheduled to be published sometime later this month, below:

>"Friendship makes life worth living, and worth ending too."

>"Eufrasia Vela is a caregiver—it’s not just her job. But when she begins working with Doña Carmen, a bedridden elderly woman who spends her days staring out the window at her now-obstructed view of the sea, she confronts the limits to her ability to help. That is, until Doña Carmen makes a big, last request: to transform her caretaking from helping her stay alive to helping her die. A good death has much in common with a good life, after all, and incapacity, loneliness, and isolation are devastations that a compassionate friend can help ease. Dignity, community, respect, and generosity—they’re what Eufrasia offers her clients, and what their friendship offers her. One Hundred Guinea Pigs is the lifegiving, warmhearted novel about euthanasia you didn’t know you needed."

Aside from the information I've come across on Charco's website, I really don't know much about Gustavo Rodríguez, however, I've been excited about this book release since February or so when I learned that the translator, Daniel Hahn, won an English PEN Translate Award.

I also just realized that the original Spanish-language novel, Cien cuyes, was awarded the Premio Alfaguara 2023, so now I'm even more curious to check out Gustavo Rodríguez's One Hundred Guinea Pigs when Charco Press prints it later this month!

Peace!

Hi, I’m u/perrolazarillo and I’m addicted to buying used books!

Honestly, I’ve been engaging in this type of behavior for quite some time, probably the last 15 years or so: I just can’t help but scour the usually picked-over shelves of thrift shops, secondhand bookstores, street sales, library discard stacks, etc., in a perpetual search for titles that I’ve heard/read about online or elsewhere (to this end, I’m constantly researching new writers whose works might be of interest to me). 

For me, buying used books is a bit like chasing the dragon, or a never-ending treasure hunt, if you will! Nonetheless, while I always enjoy the ephemeral high of striking gold on the shelves, at the same time, I feel weak for regularly giving into my consumeristic urges, but I suppose that, at least in that sense, I can blame my shortcomings on being a typical American (i.e. estadounidense) through and through.

In any case, at the end of the day, I really do get a matchless endorphin rush straight from the ether when, by chance, I happen upon—out in the wild to boot!—a used book that's been on my radar!

OK, so now that my confession is out of the way, here’s 15 works of “latamlit” that I’ve scored over the last few months:

1.) Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia)

• Ashamedly, I still haven’t made time to read any JGV, but I really need to correct that soon. I’ll likely start with The Sound of Things Falling, though this novel sounds promising too.

2.) The Selected Poems of Rosario Castellanos by Rosario Castellanos (México)

• I can’t believe I found this vintage edition at a thrift shop! This is a 1988 bilingual parallel-text publication from Graywolf Press. I read Castellanos’s Poesía no eres tú in grad school and enjoyed it!

3.) Nuestra señora de la soledad by Marcela Serrano (Chile)

• I was astounded to find a book published by Alfaguara (one of the best Spanish-language publishers IMO) at another one of my local thrift shops. I don’t know hardly anything about this author, but it’s supposed to be a "novela policíaca" of sorts, so I’m hoping for Claudia Piñiero-type vibes.

4.) Piano Stories by Felisberto Hernández (Uruguay)

• I just snagged this one at my favorite local secondhand bookstore yesterday! I had never heard of this author before—Uruguay is a bit of a blind spot for me—however, apparently Hernández is considered to be one of the originators of magical realism, and has been cited by the likes of Gabriel García Márquez and Julio Cortázar (not to mention Italo Calvino) as a major influence. This title is now available from New Directions, however, the copy I scored (believe it or not: for just $3 due to some laughably minor damage) is a first edition from Marsilio Press based out of Venice, Italy.

5.) George Washington Gómez by Américo Paredes (USA, Chicano)

• I heard about this book years ago in a grad seminar I took on US Latino/a literature, but had since forgotten about it. Still, I've always had good recall and was incredibly surprised to find this copy published by Arte Público Press (U of Houston) at one of my local thrift shops (no, I don’t live in Texas).

6.) The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (México)

• I was just out of town on vacation and came across this novel, which had been on my radar since I read Luiselli’s Tell Me How It Ends back in 2018, at a small yet labyrinthine secondhand bookstore. I love Coffee House Press—what a score!

7.) Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (México)

• This Luiselli title had also been on my radar since it first came out in 2019, but I finally just found myself a used copy in decent shape last month while thrifting. I’ve recently become even more interested in this novel after reading Álvaro Enrique’s Now I Surrender (FYI: Luiselli and Enrigue were once married; LCA and NIS were ostensibly both written, at least in part, during the same family road trip). Although I bought this book stateside, this particular edition is from 4th Estate out of London, England.

8.) The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú)

• I have never read any of Vargas Llosa’s work. In my mind, I’ve always been more interested in his earlier novels, however, I understand that this one is perhaps his most famous. Thus, when I came across this Picador edition at my local library, I jumped at the chance to take it home for the killer price of a mere 50 cents.

 

9.) I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay)

• This is the only book by a Paraguayan author that I own; it was a recent secondhand-bookstore find. I have seen this book mentioned/discussed quite a bit on social media, but have not yet tried it out for myself, as it’s a rather intimidating tome. Has anyone here read it? By the way, I own one other book from this “Aventura: The Vintage Library of Contemporary World Literature” series (i.e. Julio Cortázar’s We Love Glenda So Much and A Change of Light), and have a hankering to track down more.

10.) Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector (Brasil)

• I imagine that my love for New Directions is no secret. So, when I stumbled upon a near-mint-condition copy of Near to the Wild Heart at one of my local thrifts, you already know I got all giddy—and may have even jumped—with joy!

11.) The Land by Antônio Torres (Brasil)

• I didn’t know anything about this novel nor its author before laying my eyes on its spine in a secondhand bookstore a few weeks ago. This title is published by the non-profit Readers International, which I really don’t know much about (their website hits like an ode to the dial-up era!). I own one other title from this press: El Infierno by Uruguayan author Carlos Martínez Moreno, which I still have yet to read (are you noticing a pattern?).

12.) I’ll Sell You A Dog by Juan Pablo Villalobos (México)

• This novel sounds crazy and hilarious to me; I haven’t read JPV to date but have heard Down the Rabbit Hole is especially great! Has anyone here read this one? In case you were unaware, And Other Stories is an excellent, UK-based press that mainly focuses on literature in translation.

13.) Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra (Chile)

• I was pumped to find this Zambra title while thrifting… then I started flipping through the pages and came across the unsightly snail trail of a yellow highlighter (generally, I can stomach others' marginalia and markings as long as they're written neatly, preferably in pencil rather than pen; however, I personally believe using highlighter in a book is an abomination! Anyway, the previous owner of this one only defiled four pages in total with his/her highlighter, so this time, I decided to let it slide). I read this brief novel last week and plan to post my thoughts in the coming days, so keep your eyes peeled (sneak peek: I loved it!).

14.) The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández (Chile)

• Last month, I was in Charleston, South Carolina, and popped into one of the branches of their public library system on a whim; serendipitously (at the time, Fernández’s name had been coming up in discussion rather frequently here in r/latamlit), I was able to nab this discarded title for less than a dollar! Unlike the aforementioned Castellanos title, this is a much more recent publication from Graywolf Press, a publisher that I greatly respect.

15.) That’s Life / Así es la vida by Jack Delano (Puerto Rico, Ukraine)

• Finally, I also thrifted this intriguing book from University of Puerto Rico Press. I don’t know much about Russian Empire-born Jack Delano (1914, modern-day Ukraine) but I’m curious to learn more. Delano is primarily known for his photography, however, he was also an accomplished cartoonist (pen name: Joaquín); this bilingual book collects a large swath of Joaquín’s cartoons published between 1955 and 1963 in The Island Times, an English-language weekly located in San Juan. (See second attached photo for a small sample).

(Please note that this stack of books is not the same as my TBR stack, which is in a state of constant evolution. If I were to move one of these books up to the tippy top of my TBR stack today, I’d probably select Felisberto Hernández’s Piano Stories out of sheer curiosity, though, Nona Fernández’s The Twilight Zone is one that I’ve been intending to read for a little while now, so I’ll likely knock that one out before any other title pictured here.)

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a bit of a book-buying "problem," one which has led to a serious backlog of unread tiles. However, I opt to think of my immeasurable TBR stack along the lines of the Japanese concept of “tsundoku,” which the BBC distinguishes from bibliomania accordingly: “Bibliomania describes the intention to create a book collection, tsundoku describes the intention to read books and their eventual, accidental collection” (free article: Tsundoku—BBC).

So, I guess this is all to say, I’ll eventually get around to reading all my books… one of these days…

Anyway, has anyone here read any of these titles? Please let us know in the comments!

Peace!

“If there is one contemporary writer who defies classification, it is César Aira… Aira is an eccentric, but he is also one of the three or four best writers working in Spanish today.” — Roberto Bolaño (excerpted from “El increíble César Aira,” originally published in Entre paréntesis, 2004).

Well, I did it! I finally read my first Aira… now I only have one hundred or so more to go before I can call myself an “Aira Completist”… (/s)

In all seriousness though, have you read César Aira? If so, which book(s)?

For those of you who have yet to check out Aira, you might be wondering: ”Where does one begin?” (I’ve actually seen this very question pop up here in the community several times over the last few months).

Personally, I started with An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter (published by New Directions) at the behest of u/sloweducation1, u/WhereIsArchimboldi, and u/2sweetsavage (you all might not realize it, but you definitely inspired me to seek out and read this true marvel of a novel, so thanks a million!).

Despite having only read a single work by Aira, I must say that I certainly do not disagree with what Bolaño himself had to say about the man back in 2004 (see quote above).

Let me be more direct: An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter was amazing! I absolutely loved it and I’m looking forward to taking on more Aira soon! I have Ghosts and Shantytown at home, so my next read from Aira is liable to be one of the two, however, I’m super curious about How I Became a Nun as well (FYI: all of these English-language titles are published by New Directions). Which other Aira titles should be high on my list? The Literary Conference? The Hare? Something else?

In any event, so as to ensure that you all are up to speed, here’s New Directions’s synopsis of the Aira novel currently in question:

>“An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter is the story of a moment in the life of the German artist Johan Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858). Greatly admired as a master landscape painter, he was advised by Alexander von Humboldt to travel West from Europe to record the spectacular landscapes of Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. Rugendas did in fact become one of the best of the nineteenth-century European painters to venture into Latin America. However this is not a biography of Rugendas. This work of fiction weaves an almost surreal history around the secret objective behind Rugendas’ trips to America: to visit Argentina in order to achieve in art the “physiognomic totality” of von Humboldt’s scientific vision of the whole. Rugendas is convinced that only in the mysterious vastness of the immense plains will he find true inspiration. A brief and dramatic visit to Mendoza gives him the chance to fulfill his dream. From there he travels straight out onto the pampas, praying for that impossible moment, which would come only at an immense price—an almost monstrously exorbitant price—that would ultimately challenge his drawing and force him to create a new way of making art. A strange episode that he could not avoid absorbing savagely into his own body interrupts the trip and irreversibly and explosively marks him for life.”

I don’t believe I’ve ever read a work quite like Aira’s An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter; it’s truly unique! In spite of its idiosyncratic nature, Landscape Painter resembles a rather traditional narrative, at least in the sense that it’s not highly fragmented nor structured around chapters, section breaks, or elipses. Instead, it is one single, flowing narrative, albeit broken up into paragraphs, consisting of approximately 85 pages (in English). Nevertheless, Landscape Painter is still an experimental, surrealist novel in my view, though, Aira’s form of experimentation occurs more at the sentence level, as some of the phrases he concocts and passages he stirs up are utterly unmatched in terms of novelty.

When the reader lays eyes on the text in its totality, that is, by simply flipping through the pages that comprise the novel, the structure of Landscape Painter appears deceptively straightforward. However, once one actually begins to read the text, they are met with surprise after surprise. In this vein, a particular aspect of Aira’s style that I’m just beginning to wrap my brain around is his use of “digression.”

Due to the fact that César and I are new acquaintances, I encourage you all to do your own research (straight up: just Google “Aira digression”), but in any case, allow me to attempt to put into my own words what exactly constitutes a “digression” in Aira’s oeuvre: OK, so basically you’re reading the narrative, right?, following along with the plot, getting to know the characters, etc., when all of a sudden, new sentence, Aira hits pause on relating the concrete action of the story and instead ventures off into an extended meditation on [insert heady epistemological/ontological topic here] for a paragraph or three before picking back up the plotline he suspended temporarily in order to resume telling the overarching narrative.

Such digressions are simultaneously jarring and exhilarating, as they often present the reader with delicious anachronisms that could only ever exist within the surrealist, dream logic of Aira’s literary aesthetic. Here’s an excerpt from the text that has really stuck with me since I finished Landscape Painter last week (marked appropriately for spoilers); to set this passage up for you all, what’s important to know is that the two protagonists of the novel have been tasked with representing “the physiognomy of nature” via their artwork:

>“Both of them had been making these discrete sketches with the sole aim of composing stories, or scenes from stories. The scenes would be part of the larger story of >!the raid!<, which in turn was a very minor episode in the ongoing clash of civilizations. There is an analogy that, although far from perfect, may shed some light on this process of reconstruction. Imagine a brilliant police detective summarizing his investigations for the husband of the victim, the widower. Thanks to his subtle deductions he has been able to ‘reconstruct’ how the murder was committed; he does not know the identity of the murderer, but he has managed to work out everything else with an almost magical precision, as if had seen it happen. And his interlocutor, the widower, who is, in fact, the murderer, has to admit that the detective is a genius, because it really did happen exactly as he says; yet at the same time, although of course he actually saw it happen and is the only living eyewitness as well as the culprit, he cannot match what happened with what the policeman is telling him, not because there are errors, large or small, in the account, or details out of place, but because the match is inconceivable, there is such an abyss between one story and the other, or between a story and the lack of a story, between the lived experience and the reconstruction (even when the reconstruction has been executed to perfection) that the widower simply cannot see the a relation between them; which leads him to conclude that he is innocent, that he did not kill his wife.” (73-74)

The above digression is one of many throughout the text of Landscape Painter. Nonetheless, this particular example illustrates some of Aira’s primary thematic concerns (as I see them) in the novel, namely the intrinsically imperfect nature of representation, both via the plastic arts as well as via literature, language. This is to intimate that Landscape Painter is, in part, a work of metafiction, as the narrator of the novel often reflects on the narrative while in the process of recounting it.

For me, Aira’s language in Landscape Painter is dense and borders on the baroque, albeit beautifully so; it’s also chocked full of symbolic meaning and surrealist imagery, and yet still, it’s highly readable (however, I will admit that I read this novel at a bit of a slower pace than usual). Much like Bolaño, in my view, Aira achieves a brand of literary surrealism that is plot-driven and character-forward, rather than being overly esoteric and abstruse, which frankly I believe to be the case with some contemporary surrealist authors I’ve read. So, I guess this is all to say, if you love Bolaño but have been looking to branch out, Aira just might be the writer you’re seeking!

By the way, just to put it on your radar: on July 28, 2026, New Directions will publish Five by César Aira, which is a collection of five (go figure!) short novel(la)s. At the moment, I’m thinking I’ll pick up a copy for myself, but that remains to be seen...

Anyway, have you read An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter? What about some of Aira’s other works? In either case, would you care to drop your thoughts in the comments below?

As always, thanks for reading… Peace!