The latest addition to my website is Elena Poniatowska‘s Leonora (Leonora). This is a feminist biographical novel about Leonora Carrington. Carrington was a Surrealist painter, something quite rare for an English woman. She was the daughter of a textile magnate and, though brought up in wealth, she was very free-spirited, which did not go down … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Antonio Ortuño‘s El buscador de cabezas [The Head Hunter]. This novel tells the story of Alex Faber who gets involved in the extreme right in an unnamed Latin American country. As a teen he joined a group, the Republicans, which seemed to enjoy attacking prostitutes, gays and so … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hernán Lara Zavala‘s Península, Península [Peninsula, Peninsula]. This novel, set in the mid 1800s, concerns a native uprising in Yucatán, a result of the mistreatment of the native population by the whites. Lara Zavala tells his story using himself (we learn about his writing process and thoughts) but … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Daniel Sada‘s Casi nunca (Almost Never), one of two novels by this Mexican writer translated into English. Sada was highly praised by Roberto Bolaño but, on the basis of this book, I am not sure I share his view. The book is quite simply a sex comedy. Demetrio … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Eve Gil‘s Tinta violeta: Sho-shan segunda temporada [Violet Ink: Sho-shan second season]. Gil has called this novel, and others she has written, mangic realism, as manga/anime features very much in the story. Eve Gil’s youngest daughter has Asperger’s Syndrome, as does the heroine and part-narrator of this novel … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Claudia Marcucetti Pascoli‘s Heridas de agua [Wounds of Water]. This is a quirky novel about Mexican history and politics, with some of the narration by a mill, where much of the action is set, and a series of ghosts. Gioconda Cattaneo de González Núñez, born in Naples, marries … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Luis Jorge Boone‘s Las afueras [The Outskirts]. Boone is a Mexican writer, mainly known for his poetry and short stories (one collection has been translated into English) but this is his only novel, not translated into English or any other language. It does not really have a plot, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Cristina Rivera-Garza‘s Nadie me verá llorar (No One Will See Me Cry). The novel is set at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century and its main but by no means only focus is on Joaquín Buitrago, a man who works as photographer in … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Carmen Boullosa‘s De un salto descabalga la reina (Cleopatra Dismounts) . This is another funny, exuberant, post-modern, feminist novel from Carmen Boullosa, telling the story of Cleopatra and, in particular, her relationship with Mark Anthony. It starts and ends with the period just before she commits suicide, about … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Bernardo Esquinca‘s Los escritores invisibles [The Invisible Writers]. This novel is narrated by Jaime Puente, a would-be novelist who cannot get published. When he finally does get an offer of publication, it comes with strings attached. He has to deliver Roberto Rojas, his former teacher and friend, and … Read more