The latest addition to my website is Rosa Beltrán‘s Efectos secundarios [Secondary Effects]. This relatively short novel packs a lot in. It tells the story of a woman (though initially identified as male) who introduces authors and their new books at book launches open to the public. The books are self-help or similar second-rate works, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Gustavo Sainz‘s La princesa del Palacio de Hierro (The Princess of the Iron Palace). Sainz was part of the Onda movement, a literary movement that rejected the formal and conservative writings of previous Mexican authors and adopted a colourful language, using lots of slang and vulgarities, and openly … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ignacio Padilla‘s Si volviesen sus majestades [If Their Majesties Were to Return]. This is a wonderfully chaotic novel, nominally set in the 16th-17th century (and written in a variation of the language of that time) but a 16th-17th century that has cinema, computers and inflatable sex dolls. The … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Juan Pablo Villalobos‘ Fiesta en la madriguera (Down the Rabbit Hole). This is a Mexican drug novel (narcoliteratura) with a difference. It is narrated by a child, the son of a drug dealer. Tochtli, the child in question, lives with his father, Yolcaut, and various auxiliaries, including well-armed … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hector Camín‘s El error de la luna [The Moon’s Mistake]. This tells the story of the nineteen year old Leonor Gonzalbo, whose parents have been killed in a car crash and who is now living with her grandparents. Leonor becomes obsessed with her late aunt, Mariana, whom she … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Valeria Luiselli‘s La historia de mis dientes (The Story of My Teeth). This is a superb post-modern novel about, well, teeth (amongst other things). Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez was born with four premature teeth. When his adult teeth grew, they were all pointing in different directions. After an uneventful … Read more
The latest addition to my website is José Agustín‘s De perfil [In Profile]. This novel, Agustín’s second, had considerable commercial and critical success in Mexico. It tells of four days in the life of the narrator, known only as X, a seventeen year old boy. We follow his relationship with his parents, particularly his father, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Alek Popov‘s Мисия Лондон (Mission to London). Alek Popov was the cultural attaché to the Bulgarian Embassy in London and this is a very funny novel, satirising the Embassy and its relations with the British. The main focus of the story is a charity event, hosted by the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jean Giono:‘s Un de Baumugnes (Lovers are Never Losers). This is the second in Giono’s Pan trilogy of novels. This one is a love story. Amédeé, an older itinerant farm worker meets Albin, a young man from the eponymous Baumugnes, a strange (and fictitious) community of non-Catholics driven … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Alfredo Bryce Echenique‘s Las obras infames de Pancho Marambio [The Infamous Works of Pancho Marambio]. Bienvenido Salvador Buenaventura is a fifty-four year old successful lawyer in Lima. He has never been married. His parents and two brother are both dead, the men from alcoholism. The two others were … Read more