Booklist

Natalia’s Summer Picks 2022

Selected by Natalia de la Ossa


There are a few writers I’ll read anything by, and this summer three of them have new books out. Juan Pablo Villalobos wrote the phenomenal I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me (tr. Daniel Hahn) in 2020, the story of the impunity and global power of the narco cartels in Mexico; his new book has a more magical narrative approach, exploring racism and xenophobia with absurdist wit. Juan Gabriel Vasquez has been described as the new Bolaño: his previous book Songs for the Flames (tr. Anne McClean) touches on the endless impact political violence has as it has mutated over the years in Colombia; his new one is about Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera. And for a bit of comfort reading, there’s the new Silvia Moreno-Garcia – a retelling of the 1896 science-fiction novel by H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau.

A couple of new authors for me, Camila Sosa Villada and Sonia Overall, are also included, alongside a mushroom cookery book: mushrooms are one of my favourite foods, with anything from pasta and rice to salads and soups, so I'm looking forward to trying recipes from Martin Nordin’s new book.

From the publisher:
Translated by Kit Maude‘Every so often, a slim book absolutely clobbers you with its exuberance and beauty – for me, this was that book’ Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby‘A beautiful novel,…

From the publisher:
Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean“One of the great novels to have been written in our language” Mario Vargas LlosaHe thought that memories were invisible like light, and just as smoke made light show, there must be a…

From the publisher:
Translated by Rosalind HarveyJuan Pablo Villalobos’s fifth novel adopts a gentle, fable-like tone, approaching the problem of racism from the perspective that any position as idiotic as xenophobia can only be fought with sheer…

From the publisher:
Ernest Hemingway is in Cuba, trying to finish his final novel The Garden of Eden, a strange and prescient story that explores the boundaries of gender. Penelope is an English professor, who, decades after Hemingway's death,…

From the publisher:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a dreamy reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century…

From the publisher:
It’s okay for men to make bad art. There’s no price on their head for doing it … Nothing for men is pre-determined, except their chance at great success.Los Angeles, 1978.When Romy, a gifted young artist in the…

From the publisher:
The 70 vegetarian recipes in Mushrooms applaud the versatility of this classic ingredient. Bestselling author of Fire, Smoke, Green, Martin Nordin, showcases creative and varied ways that mushrooms can be served. From soups and stews, to…

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