The Welsh novelist, poet, translator and author of memoir The Vagabonds Breakfast (winner of Wales book of the year for non-fiction 2012) picks five books written by Latin American authors in translation worth your time.
Wars of the Interior by Joseph Zárate
A powerful account of lives lived on the front line of environmental catastrophe in the Peruvian Amazon region. The prizewinning translation by Annie McDermott is exceptional. A vital book for anyone concerned about the future of our planet.
Slash and Burn by Claudia Hernández
Claudia Hernández’s big, tumultuous and troubling novel about women living with the legacy of war in El Salvador reels the reader in with multiple and overlapping stories.
Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Vásquez, Colombia’s finest contemporary novelist, tells the extraordinary story of the film director Sergio Cabrera and his family in this brilliant demonstration of the art of ‘faction’.
Brickmakers by Selva Almada
Not for the fainthearted, this brilliant, gripping novel by the exceptional Argentine writer recounts the hallucinations of two murdered men as they lie dying.
Las Biuty Queens by Iván Monalisa Ojeda
Intimate and touching stories that follow the lives of addicts and ‘locas’ (trans and gay people) in New York City during the 1990s. Absorbing, sad and tender tales of life on the margins.
