The world of Mariana Enriquez doesn't have to be ours, and yet, it ends up being so. Just a few sentences are enough to step into it, breathe it, and not forget it thanks to an unusual emotional vividness. With daily life turned into a nightmare, the reader wakes up disheartened, disturbed by stories and images they will never be able to get out of their head. The self-proclaimed "burning women," who protest against an extreme form of domestic violence that has gone viral; a student who pulls out her nails and eyelashes, and another who tries to help her; the years of government-dictated blackouts during which three friends who will be together until death do them part get intoxicated; the famous serial killer known as Petiso Orejudo, who was only nine years old; hikikomori, black magic, jealousy, heartbreak, rural superstitions, abandoned or haunted buildings... In these eleven stories, the reader is forced to forget themselves to follow the adventures and investigations of bodies that disappear or reappear at the least expected moment. Whether a social worker, a police officer, or a tour guide, the protagonists struggle to champion socially invisible beings, thus delving into the weight of guilt, compassion, cruelty, the difficulties of coexistence, and a terror as deep as it is plausible.
Mariana Enriquez is one of the bravest and most surprising narrators of the 21st century, not only within the new Argentine literature by writers born during the dictatorship but also in literature from any country or language. Mariana Enriquez transforms literary genres into narrative resources, from noir fiction to dirty realism, passing through horror, chronicle, and humor, and delves with pain and beauty into the roots, flames, and darkness of all existence.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION In these wildly imaginative, devilishly daring tales of the macabre, internationally bestselling author Mariana Enriquez brings contemporary Argentina to vibrant life as a place where shocking inequality, violence, and corruption are the law of the land, while military dictatorship and legions of desaparecidos loom large in the collective memory.
In these stories, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Julio Cortázar, three young friends distract themselves with drugs and pain in the midst a government-enforced blackout; a girl with nothing to lose steps into an abandoned house and never comes back out; to protest a viral form of domestic violence, a group of women set themselves on fire. But alongside the black magic and disturbing disappearances, these stories are fueled by compassion for the frightened and the lost, ultimately bringing these characters--mothers and daughters, husbands and wives--into a surprisingly familiar reality. Written in hypnotic prose that gives grace to the grotesque, Things We Lost in the Fire is a powerful exploration of what happens when our darkest desires are left to roam unchecked, and signals the arrival of an astonishing and necessary voice in contemporary fiction.
Author: Mariana EnriquezPublisher: Vintage Espanol
Published: 02/21/2017
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.48lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.10w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9780525432548
ISBN10: 052543254X
Language: Spanish
BISAC Categories:-
Fiction |
Literary-
Fiction |
Psychological-
Fiction |
Hispanic & Latino | GeneralAbout the Author
Mariana Enriquez nació en 1973 en Buenos Aires. Es periodista, subeditora del suplemento Radar del diario Página/12 y docente. Ha publicado las novelas Bajar es lo peor (1995) y Cómo desaparecer completamente (2004), las colecciones de cuentos Los peligros de fumar en la cama (2009) y Cuando hablábamos con los muertos (2013), la novela corta Chicos que vuelven (2010), los relatos de viajes Alguien camina sobre tu tumba. Mis viajes a cementerios (2013) y el perfil La hermana menor. Un retrato de Silvina Ocampo (2014). Su obra ha recibido un aplauso unánime: "La autora toma un rasgo que los argentinos reconocemos sobre todo en Cortázar y lo exacerba: lo podrido y maléfico de la vida cotidiana, la rajadura por la que se filtra un fondo de irracionalidad donde chapotean cuerpos entregados a sus excreciones y palpitaciones" (Beatriz Sarlo); "Un prodigioso cruce entre la reescritura de ciertas tradiciones y esa lucidez atroz que llamamos mirada propia. Compartirla con los lectores es motivo de fiesta" (Andrés Neuman). Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego se publicará en veinte países.
