Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

State Sponsored Horror

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

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I’m not a short story guy. I like a long, dense tale I can sink my teeth into. And there are so many Latin American writers who have penned beauties in that regard. Bolano, Marquez, Gamboa just to name a few. Mariana Enríquez is known for her short fiction collections. I haven’t read them. But in reading the first fifth of this one, I can see why she is so acclaimed. The first part of this book is one of the more visually arresting tales […]

An interesting premise, but not one I cared about enough to continue

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

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Did not finish It is 1981 in Buenos Aires. Juan and his young son Gaspar embark on a cross-country trip to his late wife’s family compound. It is clear from the beginning that Juan is ill and is still suffering the after-effects of recent heart surgery and the sudden loss of his wife Rosario. This is no ordinary road trip. He is struggling to support his son, who does not understand what is really happening and is traumatized by his mother’s death and his father’s […]

Do with their death bury their parents’ strife

Brickmakers by Selva Almada

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Chins slightly raised. Eyes locking on eyes. The rest hardly matters: an afternoon of scalding sun, a cloudy night, the middle of a dance hall, the soccer field in the pink evening light, some street in the center of town. Meanwhile, the music is always the same: the panting, the sound of fists, the cracking of knuckles before they land the first blow, the hiss of saliva, the occasional groan when a jab lands right in the liver, and the guys egging them on, always […]

From a folk festival to Carnegie Hall and the Sistine Chapel

Cantora: Mercedes Sosa, the Voice of Latin America by Melissa Fernandez Nitsche

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CBR15Passport country We know the story of a child of poverty making a name for themselves, but how many know the story of Mercedes Sosa? In the picture book by Melissa Fernandez Nitsche, Cantora: Mercedes Sosa, the Voice of Latin America we learn about a young girl who would sing, and that singing would take her far. In fact, so far, she would become a symbol of triumph for her people. And in fact, so strong was her voice, she would be threatened, and finally […]

My high hopes for horror were halted

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

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I read another one of Enriquez’s collections of short stories, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, earlier this year. I loved that collection so much. In my review, I called it the ‘most effective collection of short stories I [had] ever read’ and a ‘knockout’. I figured that Things We Lost in the Fire would be similar. Unfortunately that is not the case. In Things We Lost in the Fire, we have the same elements in each short story present in the collection of short stories in The Dangers […]

The most effective collection of short stories I have ever read

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez

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The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is a collection of short stories by Mariana Enriquez. The stories are a mix of magical realism and outright horror. An Argentine writer, many stories take place in Argentina but a fair few also take place in Barcelona, Spain. Enriquez embues each story with a richness of their environment that make each story feel real and possible, despite the more horrific, fantastical elements. Most collections of shorts stories that I have read in my life are mostly fine. They […]



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