Ariana Harwicz, Trans. by Sarah Moses and Carolina Orloff
RaveLatin American Literature TodayThere is an unsettling sense of both intimacy and distance as Harwicz is able to catch that disquieting moment when you step outside yourself to become a witness to your own reality ... Perhaps the most striking element of this novel, especially in regard to Harwicz’s particular use of language, is the overwhelming presence of animals and the narrator’s constant comparisons of herself to them ... Harwicz is one of the strongest voices in a contemporary trend of female Latin American writers that include Mariana Enriquez, Gabriela Wiener, Selva Almada, Mónica Ojeda, or Samanta Schweblin who create these dark, violent, intimate portraits that attempt to make pain and suffering visible through writing ... a striking, if not shattering, text that explores the darkest corners of the human psyche while also pushing at the possibilities of writing.
Gabriela Wiener, trans. by Jennifer Adcock and Lucy Greaves
RaveAsymptoteI was drawn to how she wove together the personal and the social, the anecdotal and the analytical, as she related a singular experience by rooting it in a more universal one of identity ... Beautifully translated from the Spanish by Jennifer Adcock and Lucy Greaves ... While her observations are indeed incisive, Wiener is anything but a voyeur, which suggests an external observer. She instead commits to each and every one of her stories, immersing herself in the experience so as to reach a deeper level of understanding. This intimate relationship between writer and subject defines her approach ... This self-awareness, coupled with the penetrative nature of these pieces, makes this collection especially compelling ... Wiener’s sincere, funny voice comes through clearly in Greaves and Adcock’s translation ... With Sexographies, Wiener does something truly unique by writing so honestly and openly about contemporary body politics.
Roque Larraquy, Trans. by Heather Cleary
RaveAsymptote\"While the first half of the book is stronger in its narrative cohesion and effect, the second half excels in its experimentation as perspectives, style, and form shift quite fluidly while also creating subtle bridges to the first half ... The language, which Cleary does a remarkable job transforming into English, draws the reader into the story, making him or her complicit in the horror through his or her spectatorship. The consumption of this novel is quick, but the text will inevitably continue to haunt its reader.\
