Monday, September 03, 2007

Latin American Literature Reading List

I thought I will make a list of latin american writers I haven't read yet and want to. Latin American literature excites me very much but I haven't read much besides the usual suspects like Marquez, Llosa and bits and pieces of Borges. Recently read Roberto Bolano's short novel By Night in Chile too. Haven't had a chance to get on to his widely noticed and celebrated The Savage Detectives which came out in translation recently.

Anyway here is the list...

Essential...
Juan Rulfo: Pedro Paramo
Julio Cortazar: Hopscotch

Others...
Alejo Carpentier: The Kingdom of this World
Jose Donoso: The Obscene Bird of Night
Augusto Roa Bastos: I, The Supreme
Cesar Aira: An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter
Tomas Eloy Martinez: Santa Evita
Manuel Puig: Kiss of the Spider Woman
Carlos Fuentes: The Death of Artemio Cruz
Miguel Asturias: The President
Machado de Assis: The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like Pedro Paramo, The Death of Artemio Cruz, and Veronika Decides to Die (Coelho)

sesentaydosvecesdesarmado said...

There's a new generation of Latin American writers who are doing truly great stuff, but for some reason they have gone mostly unnoticed in the states. In no specific order, I would recommend checking out: Jorge Volpi, Ignacio Padilla, Cristina Rivera Garza, Edmundo Paz Soldán, Santiago Gamboa, Pablo de Santis, Federico Iwasaki, and a bunch of others that are rewriting latin american literature. I'm sure the first four have been translated, i'm not sure of the others.

Cheshire Cat said...

Interesting. To this list I'd add Clarice Lispector's "The Passion according to G.H." and Osman Lins' "Avalovara".

François Monti said...

"Three Trapped Tigers" by Guillermo Cabrera Infante should be on your list.

Alok said...

Thanks guys for all the names. Feels so great to see so many well-read and well-informed people here.

Will definitely keep these names in mind the next time I am in the library or a book store.

Ryan said...

Horacio Castellanos Moya is another addition to this list.

Did anyone mention the essential Octavio Paz, Adolfo Bioy Casares?