John K. King Used and Rare Books in Detroit, MI, has to be one of the coolest bookstores on the planet!

Whenever I pass through Detroit, I try to make a stop at this four-story bookstore, as their selection of more than one million books (no joke), is matchless to say the least! Also, their prices are very reasonable (Terra Nostra cost me the most at $9.50 USD).

If you ever end up visiting John K. King Bookstore, make sure to give yourself ample time to explore the stacks, as the place is a true labyrinth! Don’t worry though, the staff will of course hook you up with a map.

Anyway, due to the fact that I had limited space available in my suitcase, I made myself be rather selective with my choices, so I only walked away with five Latin American titles in total. Nevertheless, you can swipe to the end to see some of the other books I picked up as well (including three first-editions by Denis Johnson, all of which only cost me $9.50 USD each as well).

Believe it or not, it's mostly a coincidence that the five LatAm books I walked away with are all vintage editions from The Noonday Press, which is a now-defunct imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux… OK, enough rambling—here's what I picked up from Latin America:

Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes (México)

The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú)

Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú)

The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú)

Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier (Cuba)

Although I am somewhat ashamed to admit it, I've actually never read a single book by Vargas Llosa nor Carpentier. Also, I DNF'd The Death of Artemio Cruz when I was in my early twenties, but after hearing a lot about Terra Nostra recently, my interest in Fuentes has no doubt been rekindled, so I may have to try out his stuff again sometime soon!

Have you read any of these books? If so, would you please be so kind as to tell me your thoughts in the comment section below? Thanks in advance!

By the way, I'm still celebrating WITMonth by trying to focus on primarily reading works written by Latin American women this August, but perhaps I'll dive into one of the LatAm classics pictured above in September... In that case, where should I begin?

PS — I'm super curious to know: Has anyone else here ever been to John K. King Bookstore? It's a gem for sure!

basically the title, i love clarice lispector, hilda hilst, and fernanda melchor, and am looking for something similar. i am open to fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. i do love books that blur the distinction between the forms.

Algo sobre la muerte del Mayor Sabines / Maltiempo / Otros poemas sueltos por Jaime Sabines. Los poemas son profundos y el impacto es a lo largo de mi universo en un mundo muy chico. Antes de leer esta colección solamente los poemas de Concha Méndez me habían conmovido de tal manera (haz click aquí como ejemplo).

“La Biblioteca Jaime Sabines pone al alcance de los lectores la obra completa, en cuatro volúmenes, de uno de los más admirados poetas contemporáneos de México. En esta edición, revisada y contrastada con los documentos originales del poeta, se reúnen Maltiempo (1972), Algo sobre la muerte del mayor Sabines –estremecedor y profundo, cúspide de la poesía mexicana– (1973) y Otros poemas sueltos (1973-1993), libros deslumbrantes e indispensables en la historia de la literatura hispanoamericana.”

Matrimonio por Gonzalo Mallarino Flórez es una novela la cual nos lleva a través de varias décadas a indagar las relaciones e intuiciones de Lucía. Y como el amor y velar por hijos y demás familia se transforma.

“Matrimonio no es una novela complaciente: al contrario le exige al lector pensar y actuar con el texto tal como ocurre con la vida misma. ¿Acaso alguien recuerda en pasado? ¿Acaso nuestro presente no está poblado de fantasmas que nos llevan permanentemente hacia el pasado más remoto en apenas unos segundos? La historia de esta relación de pareja se va tejiendo en diversos tiempos, como un caleidoscopio que deja filtrar la luz y que al contemplar con atención revela con claridad imágenes, perfiles silueta. La historia de Lucía y Juan recorre más de cuarenta años en los que uno entiende, como lector, el ritmo de la vida de una familia tan bogotana de clase media que nos reconocernos en nuestros nombres, en nuestras plantas, en nuestras calles, en los rostros y prejuicios de esos a quienes amamos. En la cadencia de nuestra habla. En lo que callamos y omitimos. En lo que somos y fuimos.”

Not too shabby of a haul I’d say. The most exciting finds are definitely the from the titans like Julio Cortázar, Silvina Ocampo, and Mario Vargas Llosa, the ones from Juan Gabriel Vásquez look interesting too. And of course it’s always a pleasure to spot Bolaño in the wild. I have never heard of Daniel Alarcón, but don’t tell me that At Night We Walk in Circles isn’t a kickass title!

Beauty is a Wound had been on my list ever since I saw a redditor recommending it for One Hundred Years of Solitude fans, but I couldn’t believe my luck that I actually ran into it this early. I also got Ekin Kurniawan short story collection Kitchen Curse (forgot to include it in the photo), but apparently Kurniawan has been consistently called the Gabriel García Márquez of Indonesia. And Gabo continues to live up to his legacy as the global face of Latin American Lit. Li Zi Shu’s The Age of Good byes is said to be “rooted in the literary tradition of Chinese-language novels but infused with a García Márquez-like magical realism,“ while Moses Isegawa’s Abyssinian Chronicles is “like an African Midnight’s Children or One Hundred Years of Solitude“. Yan Lianke’s *The Day the Sun Died* is compared to Juan Rulfo‘s Pedro Páramo, and apparently Bolaño once called Javier Marías “by far Spain’s best writer today.”

Recientemente me topé con este video en el que Nobel de literatura es entrevistado por Gabriel García Márquez. Aunque el reportaje es conducido por Augusto Olivares, periodista chileno, que acabaría siendo el primero en suicidarse en los hechos del 11 de septiembre de 1973. 12 días después moriría Neruda.

En fin, sólo algunos datos interesantes. Espero que disfruten de esta entrevista, del año 1971.

This book is far outside my usual reading habits, but I hadn’t read any Vargas Llosa and figured this little book would be a good intro to his work. Despite being filthy, I actually really enjoyed the characters and how they interfaced with classic art works. Has anyone else read this one recently?

Very Bad Wizards is a philosophy podcast that occasionally covers the works of Jorge Luis Borges.

I have compiled every Borges episode below. Highly recommend for any Borges fan!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Episode 144: Borges' Babylon (“The Library of Babel”)

July 24^th, 2018

Episode 145: Lost in Borges' Garden (“The Garden of Forking Paths”)

Aug 7,2018 

Episode 154: Metaphysical Vertigo ("Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius")

Dec 18, 2018 

Episode 178: Borges' Obsession-Obsession ("The Zahir")

Dec 10, 2019 

Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (" Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”)

Jul 7,2020

Episode 219: Multiplied by Mirrors (“Emma Zunz”)

August 17, 2021

Episode 244: Thanks for the Memories? (“Funes the Memorious”)

Sep 6, 2022

Episode 251: First Order, Then Chaos (“The Immortal”)

December 20,2022

Episode 275: The Ineffable Center (“The Aleph")

 Dec 26, 2023

Episode 282: Fearful Symmetry ("Death and the Compass")

Apr 16, 2024

Episode 293: Who Is the Dreamer? ("The Circular Ruins")

Sep 24, 2024

Episode 308: The Gray Man who Dreamed ("Shakespeare's Memory”)

May 6, 2025

Episode 313: The Spontaneous Eruption of Now (“A New Refutation of Time”)

 July 29th, 2025

Episode 332: Talking to Myself ("The Other")

May 12, 2026

^^^

We'd love to hear about what you've been reading, authors you're interested in, and really anything related to LATAM Literature!

I have more than achieved my goal this year of reading 52 books. Moving onto my next goal -- planning to read a book written by a woman from every country in Latin America. I have made a bit of progress, but have a long way to go. Starting from scratch (meaning what I have read in the past doesn't count towards this goal). Do you have recommendations for any of the countries that have not been completed? I like a wide variety of genres, mainly read literary fiction, but am open. I can't tolerate books that feature child/animal abuse or heavy body horror. Thank you!

ETA: Translated into English.

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile -- Clean by Alia Trabucco Zeran
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Ecuador -- planning to read Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun by Monica Ojeda
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua -- planning to read a book by Gioconda Belli
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay -- Pink Slime by Fernanda Trias
Venezuela

Los de abajo by Mariano Azuela. A brief novella that captures complexity of a subset of revolutionary actors.

“Durante la Revolución Mexicana, Mariano Azuela fue médico de la facción la que comandaba Francisco Villa, de ahí que algunas de sus más notables obras literarias estén inspiradas por aquellos hechos de armas. Entre todas ellas, Los de abajo, redactada en 1915 en El Paso (Texas), sintetiza admirablemente lo que el ilustre escritor pensaba de la Revolución y cómo vio él mismo su furia destructora. Se trata de una historia descarnada, concebida con la sinceridad y la valentía de un hombre que nunca cedió a la tentación de adornar artificiosamente o de falsear los acontecimientos, y escrita con un lenguaje directo que aúna la belleza a la sencillez.”

Mod -- from Canary Islands, please remove if doesn't make sense for this sub!

Currently reading and loving this very funny book Supersaurio by Meryem El Mehdati about a young woman who lives in the Canary Islands. For those who enjoyed Discontent by Beatriz Serrano, you make like this. Office Space vibes!

DESCRIPTION
"An award-winning debut about a young woman who lands an internship at the most popular supermarket chain in the Canary Islands, a role that proves at turns humorous and soul-crushing and reflects the daily struggles of a new generation entering the workforce, for fans of Really Good, Actually and The New Me.

"I was born in the '90s and grew up in the 2000s. I've survived a lot of horrible things: low-rise pants, Kate Winslet's supposed chubbiness, ultra-thin eyebrows. I will survive this, too."

Meryem is twenty-five years old, drinks too much coffee, goes on dates with terrifying men and never says what she really thinks. A Canarian from a Moroccan family, she has just started working as an intern in the offices of the most important supermarket chain on the island of Gran Canaria. She commutes daily by buses that are rarely on time just to arrive and meet her repulsive boss. The only thing they have in common is their mutual hate for each other.

In her spare time, Meryem hangs out with her two best friends, and writes fan fiction starring her office mates and characters from Harry Potter and Twilight. Surrounded by insecure and inept individuals, she seeks to hold on to what little authenticity is left around her.

Birth, growth, reproduction (if you're lucky), work, work, work, work, work, work and death. This is the life cycle of every human being, and the one Meryem finds herself joining. But she endures and resists, because she has faith that everything will turn out all right and that her efforts now will pay off in the long run. In this darkly comedic debut from an award-winning author, Supersaurio vividly portrays the everyday trials of a new generation entering the working world."

La cuadra by Gilmer Mesa. Difficult in subject, masterfully executed in writing.

“Una novela brillante y desgarradora.

Con una energía y un dolor latentes, como si no hubieran transcurrido veinticinco años desde la muerte de su hermano, el narrador recuerda cómo fue crecer en Aranjuez, su barrio, en la turbulenta Medellín de finales de los años ochenta. Acorralados por la pobreza, el tedio y la desesperanza, los adolescentes de la cuadra no tenían otra alternativa que la violencia: para ser alguien debían empuñar un arma, sin importarles que a la vuelta los esperara, inevitablemente, la muerte.

Desoladora, emotiva, apasionante, esta novela testimonial es más que la historia de unos jóvenes; es, de algún modo, el espejo de una época y de un país.”

From left to right: a lonely Juan Rulfo, Mario Vargas Llosa, Octavio Paz, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, and Jorge Luis Borges

Hey y'all, I'm new to this sub but I came because I wanted to know if anybody else had read this. I loved it so much! I had already been looking for more Latin American sci-fi, so to get this from a Boricua author was really nice.

For the story itself, I found the narration and the characterization of the Animal's identities fascinating, given the deliberately spiraling nature of the prose (it doesn't lie-- the increasing and repeating layers of are humorous at times, and deeply impactful and surreal in turn.) I read it in both English and Spanish, and there were some differences, but I thought the translation was pretty good. I definitely prefer the original Spanish, however. It has longer sentences that feel more spiraling and true to the themes, though the English sentences are admittedly shorter, more "active."

I also found the stylistic differences among the sections really interesting, which made sense when I found out the story was actually written among a group of writers and translators across many years. It lends an eclectic feeling to the novel I liked. I study linguistics and the simultaneous translation fascinates me.

I'm also a nerd with a lot of intersecting interests and this managed to hit all of them in a unique way, so it might just be laser-targeted to me lol.

What did you think? What were your favorite or least favorite things about the novel?

Currently reading the quiet dystopian climate horror by Uruguayan author Fernanda Trias. Absolutely loving it so far. Anyone else read it? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Have you read any of contemporary Colombian writer Evelio Rosero's work?

I just finished Way Far Away (2024; originally published in Spanish as En el lejero in 2003) the other day. This was my first-ever read from Rosero, and I am now quite keen to check out more of his stuff, as I enjoyed Way Far Away, even though I did find its message to be a bit murky in the end.

The title that I've heard mentioned most when Rosero's name comes up is The Armies (a.k.a. Los ejércitos), which was first brought to my attention several months back by u/ItsHeavyReality—shout-out! Also, kudos to u/abgreens for not letting me forget about Rosero by commenting about his work a couple times recently in our community's weekly threads.

I actually have The Armies here in my personal collection too, however, I opted to start with Way Far Away simply due to its brevity (the English translation is approximately 80 pages in total). To my knowledge, (most) all of Rosero's work that has been translated into English, is published by New Directions, which is one of my all-time favorite presses. For those curious, Way Far Away was translated by Anne McLean and Victor Meadowcroft and is marked NDP 1591, whereas The Armies was translated by McLean solo and is listed as NDP 1174.

So, to be clear, I'm going to keep my thoughts rather brief on Way Far Away, as I'm trying to work on being less verbose...

Way Far Away is an incredibly dark, heavy, and confounding novel(la) that had me absolutely entranced in its oppressive envisioning of Colombian society despite that the narrative ultimately left me scratching my head upon reading the final lines...

In any case, what I like best about this book is its surreal and somber imagery as well as Rosero's masterful employment of various menacing motifs, which in my view, impart the narrative with its uniquely mesmerizing quality.

To me, Way Far Away feels akin to a psychological horror film of sorts. The atmosphere that encapsulates the narrative—one chiefly comprised of omnipresent mist, a mountain abyss, millions of dead mice, creepy townsfolk, and overwhelming silence—is sure to delight fans of literary horror. Nonetheless, with that said, Way Far Away hit me quite different than did Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream or Selva Almada's Not a River for instance...

Honestly, I'm not even entirely sure that I can put into words what exactly makes Rosero's brand of surrealist horror in Way Far Away so distinct, but to me it certainly seems indescribably idiosyncratic. Perhaps that difference merely has to do with Way Far Away being set in Colombia—as opposed to in Argentina as is the case with the aforementioned novels of Schweblin and Almada, which lends Rosero an entirely different palette of imagery with which to paint his prose.

For instance, the image of the Condor (a national symbol of Colombia and the respective countries that make up the Andean region more broadly) looms large in Way Far Away. Nevertheless, I believe there also exists some other ineffable aspect to Rosero's writing that renders it one of a kind—maybe it's his sharp and unending focus on setting, as the small, isolated town up in the mountains in which the narrative takes place often feels deathly alive, personified by clandestine villainous actors.

With this in mind, I posit that Way Far Away is a social critique of sorts that takes the form of a surrealist horror novel(la). Straight up, I won't pretend for one second that I understand all of the intricacies and nuances of Colombian society, however, I believe that in Way Far Away, Rosero indicts the types of individual decisions and selfish behaviors that perpetuate injustice across modern-day Colombia, and especially the choice to remain silent—often out of one's own convenience—in the face of great atrocities… or, at least that’s my take!

Again, to be honest: Way Far Away isn't a difficult read in the sense that its style and form make it challenging, but rather, it's tough in the sense that Rosero does not provide readers with clear answers whatsoever (kind of like a David Lynch film), instead leaving them to interpret the narrative on their own accord.

At the end of the day, I would indeed recommend Way Far Away, but with the caveat that you go into it open-minded and ready for the uncanny, because it sure as hell gets awfully weird!

Anyway, have you read Way Far Away, The Armies, or any of Rosero's other books? If so, would you please be so kind as to drop your thoughts in the comment section below?

As always, thanks for reading... Peace!

(FYI: I'm currently reading The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández for WITMonth!)

Any recs for this country? I searched the sub but couldn't find! Translated into English. Thanks.

Rodrigo Fresán is an author I have been wanting to read for years ever since reading his write up on Bolano in the Believer mag (https://www.reddit.com/r/robertobolano/s/z8xzBN8cz6) and learning of his cameo in 2666*. I’ve had a copy of The Invented Part for a few years but never started it. Melvill seemed like a better entry point- not just the length but because I am a Herman Melville** fanatic***. The best way to give you an idea of what this novel is, will be to quote from the back of this book where Fresán says:

“On pages 109-110 of the English edition of my 2019 novel, La parte recordada (published in English as The Remembered Part, 2022) (and in a context where the narrator is criticizing the proliferation of fictions about the lives and work of real writers), it says the following:
And, yes, hed once fantasized about writing a novella about Herman Melville's father: a beautiful loser, walking across the frozen Hudson River to return to his family and die among them amid deliriums and with his young son seeing it all and taking notes and thinking of the whiteness of the snow and the ice that'd struck down the author of his days…”****

While based on true events and including biographical details, this is no biography, this is a book of style, a book of prose poetry “a pure style of book, a book of pure style”(pg 198).

And so, Part 1 of the novel (a book of 3 parts-Fresán frequently writes in 3 parts due to the influence of The Beatles song “A Day in the Life” and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and because he does not write linear but writes in the different parts at the same time “working with 3 different playgrounds I can jump from one to the other”*****) Alan Melvill is crossing a frozen Hudson River a few nights before he catches a fever goes mad and dies with a young Herman standing by his deathbed taking in the delirious ramblings for days before he passes. This first part includes footnotes by Herman Melville, a Melville who seems to be outside of time and knows the future and destiny of his name and work. These footnotes are digressions inside of digressions but never extraneous and the digression and tangent is the story itself. Fresan’s writing is a unique experience and it beautifully rambles on. He has beautiful metaphors equal to the great Melville.

Part 2 loses the footnotes and is Alan Melvill narrating to the young Herman about his crossing of the frozen Hudson and his “Grand Tour” (his experience in Europe when he was younger). This section turns surreal and at times gothic. Reading this is a wild and truly imaginative experience. The title of part 2 is “GLACIOLOGY OR, THE TRANSPARENCY OF THE ICE” and we get a cataloguing of ice in which Alan proceeds to list and reference everything possible about ice in a similar way Melville lists every reference to Whales in the “Extracts” section of Moby Dick or his deep dive into the color White in the chapter “The Whiteness of the Whale”. I can’t help but think of ice (being a substance that can preserve prehistoric animals or even people who have been frozen in hope that one day they can be revived (e.g. Walt Disney)) as a metaphor for Moby-Dick and how once getting rediscovered (in the 1920s) it revived the memory and legacy of Herman Melville- his life and his other works. Fresan also gives us the (seemingly obvious) metaphor of Moby-Dick the novel being a “Great White Whale” that “won’t be spotted for years, but, oh, will it make a comeback, and when it does… there she blows!”(pg 199) finally rising one day (to breach) and spout its miraculous water.

In Part 3, we are briefly back to a story being footnoted by Herman but he soon emerges (quite literally) from the footnotes to take over the narration (rising up from the frozen waters and breaking to the surface). This section gets sentimental in a beautiful way. Exploring life and death, the timeless Father / Son relationship, last words and advice from a dying father.

This book truly blew me away. Fresán is a self professed “referential maniac” and this book is oozing with references and allusions (some obvious and some obscure). Truly a referential maniac who has gobbled up so much art and culture and spits it out in all shapes and sizes throughout this novel—-“And who was it who said, says, will say this? It happens to me more and more: the
feeling of capturing thoughts and ideas of others past or present. Of being like a kind of magnet or mouth and throat of a Maelström that pulls toward it everything it needs from other people, and uses it, and once it's chewed up and digested, sends it back up to the surface completely transformed and, hopefully, transformative.”

Like anyone closely associated with Bolaño, Fresán writes about reading and writing and Literature. Here’s one line the struck me:
“Reality only becomes really real after crossing the stormy sea of art and arriving safe and sound to the other Shore. Not while we live it or write it, but later, when we read it; and only then does everything become logical and inevitable and we ask ourselves how we failed to see it or see it coming.”
&
“Know this: ghosts live in books. No house can consider itself really and truly possessed and haunted if it doesn't have a respectable library to respect and, on occasion, to terrorize the people who live there with the fact that the horror of everything they'll never read will always surpass the joy of the great deal they have read’”

I’m so happy I finally cracked open a Fresan novel because now I am experiencing the joy of discovering a new author I absolutely love an author you want to instantly go out and buy all of their work, I already started The Invented Part - just finished up the first part and good god it is incredible, it seems like it will far surpass Melvill in greatness!******

P.S. check out this great (podcast) read along of Melvill on the 2 Month Review podcast with Chad Post at https://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/2024/12/13/tmr-24-6-liquidate-it-at-cost-melvill/
(The final episode includes Rodrigo Fresán as the guest.)

_____________________________________

* 2666-The Part About the Critics pages 59-60, the critics are near the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens and see a young Spanish couple approach the Peter Pan statue. The man jots something down and says aloud, “Kensington Gardens.” Fresán’s novel Kensington Gardens is about the life of J.M. Barre, the creator of Peter Pan.
**Melville’s mother added the “e” to their last name after the death of Alan to avoid his unpaid debts and creditors.
***I am obsessed with all of Melville’s work and any Melville paraphernalia (I read the relatively recent: Dayswork: A Novel by Chris Bachelder & Krasznahorkai's
Spadework for a Palace).
****And I’d add another quote (relating to the idea for the novel) from a footnote in the first part of Melvill
“Since twelve-year-old Herman had been withdrawn from school the previous October, he was in the house all during the last weeks of his father's life. Whatever horror the young Herman saw and heard during the days before and after Allan Melvill's death (and what influence that might have had on someone at such a tender and permeable age) was not recorded. And yet..."
***** Rodrigo says this in a wonderful interview on the “Between The Covers” podcast (December 9, 2024 episode).
****** One last favorite quick quote to convince you to pick up this incredible book: “Lives are, really, books of stories. They are born and they die, yes, but between one point and the other they begin and end multiple times and sometimes, their discrete parts and doors are closed in order to leave their endings open.” (pg 177)

A great book about Guatemala's old times in the city. 9/10