Peru: dizzy heights
The bloodthirsty practices of remote mountain peoples seems to be the theme for this week, with Mario Vargas Llosa’s disturbing unravelling of a series of mysterious deaths around a lonely hill...
View ArticleChile: the power of book groups
I have a confession to make: I’ve never been to a book group. In fact they fill me with dread. I’m not quite sure why. Maybe the workshop process on my master’s course inoculated me against any desire...
View ArticleBrazil: Goethe the ‘dirty old man’
From one Portuguese-language country with very few novels available in translation we jump to another that has a whole heap of them (by British standards, at least). With so many exciting...
View ArticleVenezuela: the best medicine
This project would be nothing without the people all over the planet who get in touch to suggest books, publishers, experts and organisations to help me read my way round the world. I’m continually...
View ArticleSuriname: the ties that bind
The maxim goes that we’re all six degrees of separation away from everyone else on the planet. From what I’ve discovered so far during this project to read a book from every sovereign state in the...
View ArticleUruguay: losing your head
There are some titles that reach off the shelves, grab you by the throat and all but frogmarch you to the check out (or in this case the virtual cash desk with the little man hiding somewhere around...
View ArticleEcuador: righteous anger
Novels with messages are hard to do well. Even the best writers can become worthy bores when they set out to change people’s minds about something, turning their rounded characters into...
View ArticleColombia: the crazy truth
When it comes to South American literature, Colombia is definitely one of the hot spots. Birthplace and stomping ground of the great Gabo (Gabriel García Márquez to you and me), the country boasts a...
View ArticleBolivia: fresh blood
Jimena, who suggested my Dominican Republic book, also had thoughts on Bolivia: Edmundo Paz Soldán was the most celebrated Bolivian writer around, she said. Perhaps if I emailed him and told him about...
View ArticleParaguay: remembrance of things past
Sometimes when you’re trying to read a book by a writer from every country in the world, you have to travel in time as well as space. While there may not be any translated literature from that nation...
View ArticleBook of the month: Zulmira Ribeiro Tavares
Brazil is certainly not short of stories. When I was collecting recommendations for my year of reading the world back in 2012, many people suggested tempting-sounding titles from South America’s most...
View ArticleWITmonth pick #5: Lina Meruane
When I tweeted that I was reading Seeing Red by Chilean writer Lina Meruane last month, @infinitetexts responded: ‘hold on tight. It’s a brilliant ride!’ It turned out to be good advice because this...
View ArticleBook of the month: Samanta Schweblin
When I was at university, I saw the following question on an exam paper: ‘Literary prizes often go to the right author but rarely the right book. Discuss.’ It was one of my earliest exposures to the...
View ArticleBook of the month: Liliana Colanzi
With a few notable exceptions, South American countries are generally poorly served when it comes to having their literature translated into the world’s most published language. If you want to venture...
View ArticleBook of the month: Leonardo Padura
This book was a recommendation from two visitors to this blog. Suroor said it was ‘about the events leading up to Trotsky’s assasination’ and ‘about “corrupted utopias”: the Soviet Union, Cuba and...
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