Leyendo en español
February 4, 2020 3:51 PM Subscribe
I’d like recommendations for books, short stories, etc in Spanish. Preferably stuff that I can find but rarer stuff can become a quest.
In English, I like to read speculative fiction. Favorite authors include Ellen Kushner, Ursula LeGuin, Nnedi Okorafor. I love Angelica Gorodischer but have mostly read her stuff in English. It seems to be at university libraries or really expensive in Spanish. I’ve started to read mysteries too and I’d be up for any kind of recommendations if they have strong characters. Thanks!
I'd also like to recommend Isabel Allende's "De barro estamos hechos." A short story that is loosely speaking about a reporter who covers a natural disaster. It's an absolutely devastating story. She is maybe the most widely read Spanish language writer alive, best known for her novel La casa de los espíritus.
posted by lewedswiver at 8:58 PM on February 4, 2020
posted by lewedswiver at 8:58 PM on February 4, 2020
Response by poster: Thanks! I’ve read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Juan Rulfo, and Isabel Allende though it’s always good to know other stuff of theirs, I’m especially looking for lesser known authors I may not have discovered before.
posted by azalea_chant at 8:19 AM on February 5, 2020
posted by azalea_chant at 8:19 AM on February 5, 2020
I'm currently enjoying Mariana Enriquez' "Las Cosas Que Perdimos En El Fuego": short, weird tales set in modern Argentina. I was able to find it on Scribd, but I'm in Latin America at the moment so that may be why.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 11:12 AM on February 5, 2020
posted by Sheydem-tants at 11:12 AM on February 5, 2020
I’ve started to read mysteries
Leonardo Padura is a Cuban mystery writer who has branched out into historical fiction, which I think is kind of like science fiction since the author usually has to find a way to explain so much context. What I'm doing is working my way through El hombre que amaba a los perros (translated by Anna Kushner, The Man who Loved Dogs), translating the Spanish, checking myself by referring to Kushner's version, a little at a time. It's hard for me, but so far it has been worth the effort.
From the back cover of the English version:
posted by kingless at 3:05 PM on February 5, 2020
Leonardo Padura is a Cuban mystery writer who has branched out into historical fiction, which I think is kind of like science fiction since the author usually has to find a way to explain so much context. What I'm doing is working my way through El hombre que amaba a los perros (translated by Anna Kushner, The Man who Loved Dogs), translating the Spanish, checking myself by referring to Kushner's version, a little at a time. It's hard for me, but so far it has been worth the effort.
From the back cover of the English version:
...Leonardo Padura brings a noir sensibility to one of the most fascinating and complex political narratives of the past hundred years: the assassination of Leon Trotsky by Ramón Mercader.It starts well before LT arrives in Mexico. If I ever finish—my Spanish paperback is over 700 pages—Padura has another one of the same ilk, Herejes.
posted by kingless at 3:05 PM on February 5, 2020
I’m not sure how unknown these authors are, but I enjoyed Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi (mysteries) by H. Bustos Domecq (the pen name of Borges and Bioy Casares writing together) in college.
Around the same time, a friend was translating what I think was Cronicas del Angel Gris by Alejandro Dolina, which if I recall correctly was a series of magical realism short stories.
And I recently enjoyed the English translation of Super Extra Grande by Yoss (funny sci fi) - you might like the original.
posted by bananacabana at 6:56 PM on February 5, 2020
Around the same time, a friend was translating what I think was Cronicas del Angel Gris by Alejandro Dolina, which if I recall correctly was a series of magical realism short stories.
And I recently enjoyed the English translation of Super Extra Grande by Yoss (funny sci fi) - you might like the original.
posted by bananacabana at 6:56 PM on February 5, 2020
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Horacio Quiroga's Cuentos de Amor, de Locura, y de Muerte is brilliant and might be up your alley - he's sort of a South American Edgar Allan Poe. "La Miel Silvestre" or "A La Deriva" might be a place to start. He writes about the horror of the jungle and the frontier. Very intense, very readable.
There is no better writer in any language than Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Cronica de Una Muerte Anunciada is a brilliant, very short, and readable novel. If I was selling it to someone mostly interested in speculative fuction, I might call it a murder mystery that is a whydunnit not a whodunnit. He is best known as the definitive magical realism author... for a good short story to start with, "Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes" is one of his best known.
Borges is the definitive speculative fiction author in any language, though his writing may be more philosophical and abstruse than most such writers in English. Ficciones is the book of his to read, with "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," "Funes el memorioso," "El biblioteca de Babel," "Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote," "La lotería en Babilonia," "La muerte y la brújula" some of his best. The most Borgesian of all Borges may be his short story "Borges y Yo," which is very short and very readable, and probably the place to start. Ultimately he is a writer about ideas and a writer about writing -- the speculation of his speculative fiction is deeply philosophical.
Juan Rulfo is not remotely speculative fiction but has some of the most poignant and well developed characters of any writer. I would describe his work as the social realism of rural peasants - I swear it's not as dry as that sounds. His stories are absolutely emotionally devastating. El llano en llamas is the book of short stories to read, with "No oyes ladrar los perros" and "Diles que no me maten" being absolute perfection. Pedro Paramo is his novel that is much acclaimed, and it is more magical realist, but I would start with the stories.
posted by lewedswiver at 8:47 PM on February 4, 2020 [5 favorites]