3 Mexican authors for a summer reading list

Latin American authors are often absent from suggested English-language reading lists, wrote Maria Sanchez Diez for Quartz June 28, despite a demographic shift that has been taking place in the United States for many years. For Mexico News Daily readers who might enjoy reading the work of the new generation of Mexican authors, here are the three Mexican writers from the Quartz list and some recommended reading.

First up is Yuri Herrera, whose Signs Preceding the End of the World is described as a breathtaking novel that tells of the mission of a young girl sent to track down and rescue her brother, who has disappeared in the U.S. “Makina’s character encapsulates the Mexican immigrant’s Odyssey toward the north, as Herrera explores the symbolic and psychological dimension that every transition carries,” writes Diez.

The book was Herrera’s third. His fourth, The Transmigration of Bodies, is due to be published in English next year. Novelist and short story writer Guadalupe Nettel has created a mosaic of unforgettable characters in Natural Histories. Among them, the pregnant woman who spends her days observing how two fishes fight, the bourgeois family whose apartment is taken over by cockroaches or the couple of musicians who share a genital infection.

The tales explore the intersection between animal and human behavior, and how biological instincts influence relationships. Another more recent book by Nettel is The Body Where I Was Born, an autobiographical novel in which the narrator recalls her childhood and an eye anomaly from the couch of a psychoanalyst.

Valeria Luiselli is one of the youngest “and most talented” figures in Mexican literature, says Diez. Her Faces in the Crowd is an award-winning tale about the Spanish-speaking literary diaspora in New York.

For non-fiction, Diez suggests Luiselli’s collection of essays entitled Sidewalks. Her latest book is the novel The Story of My Teeth, which relates the tale of a man who tries to replace his repulsive teeth.

Mexico News Daily

Purchase the electronic edition of any of the suggested books by clicking on the name of the bookseller.

Yuri Herrera:

Signs Preceding the End of the World

Guadalupe Nettel:

Natural Histories

The Body Where I Was Born

Valeria Luiselli:

Faces in the Crowd

Sidewalks

The Story of My Teeth