When Alicia arrives at Mercy Gardens, she is a riddle the other residents cannot solve.Bold, indifferent, and seemingly immune to the social hierarchy headed by the formidable Hattie, Alicia does not behave like a woman losing her grip on reality. Most disturbing of all is her apparent relish for the home’s abject conditions—a stoicism that borders on the voyeuristic.Hattie, Joyce, and Ramona have long navigated the failings of a system designed to ensure t...

“[A] rich and lyrical tale of desperation and redemption . . . Throughout, Sainz Borgo applies stark poetry to the terrifying setting, where 'moans and cries attributed to ghosts sometimes masked executions and beatings.' It’s a stunner.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“[A] deeply felt meditation on migration, mourning and the simultaneous entanglement and estrangement of the living and the dead” —Los Angeles TimesWinner of the 2023 Jan Michalski Prize, a searing novel ...

On the assumption that John Updike was correct when he asserted, in a 1978 letter to Joyce Carol Oates, that "Nobody can read like a writer," Why I Like This Story presents brief essays by forty-eight leading American writers on their favorite American short stories, explaining why they like them. The essays, which are personal, not scholarly, not only tell us much about the story selected, they also tell us a good deal about the author of the essay, about what elements of fiction...

A thought-provoking Colombian crime novel set in and around a beauty salon in Bogota‘This delicate, merciless filleting of race and gender politics is highly recommended’ Guardian‘A revelation. A rewarding read and an unexpected insight into a foreign society not often documented in novels. Treat yourself’ Crime Time‘We thought we were bored of thrillers, but then we found House of Beauty … as gasp-inducing...

This novel follows three women whose lives intertwine and are ripped apart during what’s known as the time of fear” in Peruvian history when the Shining Path militant insurgency was at its peak. The novel rewrites the armed conflict in the voice of women, activating memory through a mixture of politics, desire, and pain in a lucid and brutal prose.

Winner of the 2020 Mauricio Achar AwardDoes evil lurk in the shadows of the forest or within the human heart? Eduardo Sangarcía's tale of one woman's trial opens the door to deeper horrors.Anna Thalberg is a villager shunned for her red hair and provocative beauty, so when she is dragged from her home and accused of witchcraft, her neighbors do not intervene. Only Klaus, her husband, and Father Friedrich, a priest experiencing a crisis of f...

A thought-provoking Colombian crime novel set in and around a beauty salon in Bogota‘This delicate, merciless filleting of race and gender politics is highly recommended’ Guardian‘A revelation. A rewarding read and an unexpected insight into a foreign society not often documented in novels. Treat yourself’ Crime Time‘We thought we were bored of thrillers, but then we found House of Beauty … as gasp-inducing...