Latin American Literature

Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon - A powerful and searing novel of three lives fractured by a civil war set in a nameless South American country. (February 2008)

Still Water Saints by Alex Espinoza - Imaginative, inspiring, lyrical, and beautifully written, Still Water Saints evokes the unpredictability of life and the resilience of the spirit through the journeys of the people of Agua Mansa, and especially of the one woman at the center of it all. Theirs are stories of faith and betrayal, love and loss, the bonds of family and community, and the constancy of change (February 2008)

Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende - Iin her usual sweeping style, Allende recounts the grand tale of Doña Inés Suárez (1507– 1580), the country's founding mother. (August 2007)

Turing's Delirium by Edmund Paz Soldan - A hybrid of cyberpunk and political thriller... set against the backdrop of a globalization crisis in near future Bolivia, with a corrupt government, a greedy multinational corporation, a secret code-breaking organization called the Black Chamber, and a group of young computer hackers who are staging a revolution, which, despite being electronic, is far from bloodless. (June 2007)

Malinche by Laura Esquivel - When Malinalli, a member of the tribe conquered by the Aztec warriors, first meets Cortés, she -- like many -- believes that he is the reincarnated forefather god of her tribe. Naturally, she assumes that her task is to help Cortés destroy the Aztec empire and free her people. The two fall passionately in love, but Malinalli gradually comes to realize that Cortés's thirst for conquest is all too human. He is willing to destroy anyone, even his own men, even their own love. (April 2007)

Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano - These 14 bleakly luminous stories are all told in the first person by men (usually young) who yearn for something just out of their grasp (fame, talent, love) and who harbor few hopes of attaining what they desire. (April 2007)

Saving the World by Julia Alvarez - There are two stories intertwined in the novel: one of Alma, a self-centered depressive author and the other of Isabel, a no-centered Spanish rectoress who, in 1803, with her 23 orphan boys, joins Dr. Balmis on a ship bound for the new world destined to save the world from smallpox. (April 2007)

The Eagle's Throne by Carlos Fuentes - An ailing Mexican president, two years into his mandated six-year term and manipulated by everyone around him, has banned oil exports to the U.S. and called for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from occupied Colombia. (March 2007)

Comrades in Miami by José LaTour - A suspenseful, atmospheric novel of intrigue set in contemporary Havana and Miami. (August 2006)

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - An old man finds love at the end of his life. This is a story of a relationship of love and sex between an ageing journalist and a working-class child, who sells her virginity to help her family. It is about memories and solidarity, but also about the happiness of childhood and the discovery of first love.(November 2006)

The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea - Twenty years in the making, Urrea's epic novel recounts the true story of his great-aunt Teresita. (September 2006)

Comrades in Miami by José LaTour - A suspenseful, atmospheric novel of intrigue set in contemporary Havana and Miami. (August 2006)