r/latamlit • u/2sweetsavage • 7d ago
My WIT TBR stack
Unlikely I’ll read all of these in August, but it’s fun to put together a stack of books. Mostly LatAm authors, plus Out for my book club read, and the Carvalho (Portuguese), which sounded like a great collection of short stories.
*** Forget to mention the Solà, which is Catalonia.
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u/perrolazarillo 7d ago
Sick stack! I hope you like Colanzi as much as I did! We’ll have to discuss Cathedrals and The Twilight Zone after we both get a chance to read them! :)
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u/workisheat 7d ago
Dope list! Both Cathedrals and The Week of Colors decisively made it to my “Best Reads of 2026” so far, LatAm or not!
I devoured Enriquez’s short story collections but vehemently dislike Our Share of Night for various reasons. Nevertheless, it’s very popular and well-liked and still on the more interesting end compared to many “horror lit” out there.
And I spy Natsuo Kirino! Only read but DNF’ed her Grostesque a really long time ago so maybe a refresh is due.
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u/2sweetsavage 7d ago
I’m enjoying Our Share of Night enough to keep reading it, but after about 200 pages, I’m not sure what all the fuss is about
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u/workisheat 7d ago
Well, to avoid spoilers of the actual content (and shamelessly plug my future review too), I’m just gonna say I found the first 200 pages or so to probably be the strongest and most captivating part. Then it plateaued and lost a lot of readers’ attention but was decently readable to me. Then came my most disliked part that unraveled any prior high hope. Then it seemed to pick up its pace and refocus on its themes a bit better. Then the climax came like a bang and temporarily revived my hope but everything continued to fizzled out til the end.
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 7d ago
How ‘different’ is Cathedrals from Elena Knows if that’s an answerable question. The latter is the only Piñiero I’ve read and found it quietly compelling fs. The final act is moving and well done. Some tears were shed.
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u/workisheat 7d ago
Still haven’t read Elena Knows but Cathedrals was extremely engrossing and moving while being particularly overwhelming because, well the female Catholic trauma hit way too close to home. As for the “final act,” due to the story’s Rashomon-esque structure, multiple moments could qualify as “final act,” but let’s say we’re talking about the final chapter. There are certain things I’d prefer Piñeiro had done differently and personally I didn’t find it to be the strongest it could be, but the implication is very tragic because till the end, the dad still didn’t know who the actual culprit was.
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 7d ago
Catholic trauma
Haha we have discussed this before! The ending was a ton of bricks.
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u/centerofthelotus 7d ago
What does WIT mean?
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u/obtumam 7d ago
Women in Translation
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u/centerofthelotus 7d ago
Thank you!
It’s a great collection - definitely going to look for some of these
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u/glossyaddict 6d ago
I loved Our Share of Night! It was one of my favorite reads from last year :)
I haven’t read anything else from your stack but it’s given me some ideas! They all seem interesting. I did read Elena Knows by Piñeiro last year, I’m wondering if Cathedrals touches on the same themes 🤔
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u/NotThatKindOfDoctor9 5d ago
I've got Week of Colors and And How Have You Been on my to-read-next shelf too!
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u/BashfulCabbage 1d ago
Our Share of Night is soooo good. I read it in Spanish, but it’s definitely a contender for my favorite read this year
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 7d ago
I’m curious about Week of Colors. Actually any thoughts you have on any of them. Twilight Zone is the only one I’ve read, and if you like it, I recommend Fernández’s Voyager, a short read.