Quizlit\u2019s Book of the Month January 2025 is A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enr\u00edquez. Mixing the macabre with the reverberations of Argentina\u2019s stormy past, this hypnotic short fiction collection finds Enriquez at the height of her powers<\/p>\n
This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.<\/em><\/p>\n Buy Now<\/strong>: Amazon<\/a> | AbeBooks<\/a><\/p>\n On the shores of this river, all the birds that fly, drink, perch on branches, and disturb siestas with the demonic squawking of the possessed\u2014all those birds were once women.<\/p>\n Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez<\/a>. In twelve spellbinding new stories, Enriquez writes about ordinary people, especially women, whose lives turn inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal, and the supernatural. A neighborhood nuisanced by ghosts, a family whose faces melt away, a faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the water tank on the roof, a riverbank populated by birds that used to be women\u2014these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.<\/p>\n Lyrical and hypnotic, heart-stopping and deeply moving, Enriquez\u2019s stories never fail to enthrall, entertain, and leave us shaken. Translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, A Sunny Place for Shady People showcases Enriquez\u2019s unique blend of the literary and the horrific, and underscores why Kazuo Ishiguro<\/a>, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, calls her \u201cthe most exciting discovery I\u2019ve made in fiction for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Mariana Enriquez [is] one of the best modern practitioners of the form\u2026 It is Enriquez\u2019s great gift that she can make stories with ugly subject matter so addictive and full of life\u2026 Unsettling \u2013 Observer<\/p>\n At her best, Enriquez has an unrivalled instinct for the subtly appalling image, a Lynchian (David, not Paul) sense of how horror inheres within the benign\u2026 Enriquez\u2026 is pretty much unbeatable \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n This collection has raised the stakes for everybody in the [horror] genre to an entirely new level\u2026 enticing\u2026 deeply unsettling, darkly humorous and, like all good horror movies and books, you can\u2019t look away \u2013 even for a second \u2013 NB magazine<\/p>\n Superb\u2026 A collection of enthralling and sinister stories from one of Latin America\u2019s brightest stars \u2013 Telegraph<\/p>\n \u2018A Sunny Place for Shady People reveals as much about ourselves as it does our ineffably strange, horrific world\u2026 A collection of brilliant nightmares from one of our best\u2019 \u2013 Paul Tremblay<\/p>\n Seductively gothic\u2026 [Enriquez] is at the height of her powers\u2026 at her fiercest, she sets down morbid manifestations of misogyny and female desire, rooted by a scythe-sharp, bone-dry humour\u2026 this might be her most untrammelled-and certainly her most unwavering-collection yet \u2013 Prospect magazine<\/p>\n Buy Now<\/strong>: Amazon<\/a> | AbeBooks<\/a><\/p>\n A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.<\/p>\n For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar\u2019s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?<\/p>\n Moving back and forth in time, from London in the swinging 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina\u2019s military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath, Our Share of Night is a novel like no other: a family story, a ghost story, a story of the occult and the supernatural, a book about the complexities of love and longing with queer subplots and themes.<\/p>\nBook of the Month January 2025<\/h2>\n
A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enr\u00edquez<\/h2>\n
Also by Mariana Enr\u00edquez <\/h2>\n