Ángel Gurría-Quintana

Ángel Gurría-Quintana selects some of his best international mid-year reads

The second novel by the New York-based Cuban writer deals with issues of exile and dissidence through the eyes of several émigrés

Alejandro Zambra explores the ups and downs of fatherhood in this collection of essays, poems and stories

A mother-and-son road trip is propelled by guilt and unease in Christian Kracht’s hilariously unsettling novel

Ángel Gurría-Quintana selects his must-read titles

Ángel Gurría-Quintana selects his best mid-year reads Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott (Charco Press) Shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize, Almada’s unsettling novel follows three men on a fishing trip,…

Social ills and unrest in modern-day Chile play out in a tense and tragic story of a put-upon domestic worker In her critically acclaimed non-fiction work When Women Kill (2022) Chilean writer Alia Trabucco Zerán investigated real-life murders…

Based on the author’s own family history, this continent-hopping novel chronicles the relentless march of time and the people swept up by it Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The American…

Álvaro Enrigue revisits Spain’s conquest of Mexico through the eyes of Cortés, the conquistadors and the vanquished natives Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Like the fall of Constantinople in…

The Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn (MacLehose) A group of writers attending a literary festival on the Island of Mozambique find themselves stranded when a cyclone cuts them off from the mainland. Unable to…

Deep in the backlands of Brazil’s north-east, Bibiana and Belonísia, young daughters of indentured farmworkers, make an astonishing discovery: in a suitcase hidden beneath their grandmother’s bed is an old, mysterious knife. Entranced by the glint of…

The Drinker of Horizons by Mia Couto, translated by David Brookshaw (World Editions/Farrar Straus and Giroux) Couto’s “Sands of the Emperor” trilogy, an epic account of Portugal’s rapaciousness in Mozambique, comes to an end as its protagonists —…

Brickmakers by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott, Charco Press £9.99/Graywolf Press $16.99 In a deserted amusement park in Argentina, two men lie dying in the aftermath of a knife-fight. Through masterfully managed flashbacks, Almada…

The Republic of False Truths by Alaa al-Aswany, translated by SR Fellowes, Faber £16.99/Knopf $28.95 Banned in the author’s home country, this fictionalised account of 2011’s Egyptian revolution serves up a chorus of voices — a corrupt general, a…

The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, by Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox, World Editions, RRP£12.99, 368 pagesWritten in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, this picaresque romp tracks the journey of twins Ivan…

Shokoofeh Azar, Europa Editions, RRP£13.99/$18 The first novel in Farsi to be shortlisted for the International Booker Prize brings a touch of magic realism to 1980s Tehran. Banned in Iran (the translator remains anonymous for safety reasons), it…

The Society of Reluctant Dreamers, by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn, Harvill Secker, RRP£14.99 When Daniel Benchimol finds a camera containing photos of the woman he has been seeing in his dreams, he sets off on a journey of…

Rain: And Other Stories, by Mia Couto, translated by Eric MB Becker, Biblioasis, RRP$14.95 A charming collection of short stories from Mozambique’s master storyteller. Set mostly in the aftermath of his country’s long civil war, the stories capture…

The Farm, by Héctor Abad, translated by Anne McLean, World Editions, RRP£12.99/ Archipelago, RRP$20 When his mother’s death brings him back to the family farm in Colombia, Antonio Angel must confront the country’s multi-layered history of violence.…