A Sunny Place for Shady People - by Mariana Enriquez (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

BRAM STOKER AWARD FINALIST - A diabolical collection of stories featuring achingly human characters whose lives intertwine with ghosts, goblins, and the macabre, by "Buenos Aires's sorceress of horror" (Samanta Schweblin, The New York Times)

"Entertaining, political and exquisitely gruesome, these stories summon terror against the backdrop of everyday horrors. . . . A queen of horror delivers more delightfully twisted stories."--Los Angeles Times

"As vivid and essential as Kafka's tales."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune

LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, THE TELEGRAPH, ELECTRIC LIT, PASTE, LATINA MEDIA

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--all those birds were once women.

Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez. 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--these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.

Lyrical and hypnotic, heart-stopping and deeply moving, Enriquez's 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's unique blend of the literary and the horrific, and underscores why Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, calls her "the most exciting discovery I've made in fiction for some time."

Review Quotes

"Horror that illuminates humanity's true monsters . . . Enriquez indicts our worst offensives in twelve haunting new stories."--The New York Times Book Review

"[A] goddess of grotesque tales."--The Guardian

"One hell of a read . . . The collection is poignant, seething, and hypnotic--Megan McDowell's translation hits such elevated emotional registers that the prose sings on the page."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Enriquez is Buenos Aires's sorceress of horror."--The New York Times

"Enriquez demonstrates yet again why she's an undisputed master of short horror."--Vulture

"Across 12 unnerving tales . . . the bestselling Argentine author and journalist writes of perimenopausal body horror, Kafkaesque transformations, and a town overrun by ghosts."--Time

"This collection is perfect to read with all the lights in your apartment off except one, alone, alert to every noise, ensuring you'll be unable to sleep after the last page is finished."--The Cut

"A must-read."--BookRiot

"Enriquez's writing is mesmerizing and beautiful, yet it also worms its way inside of you and sets the seeds for a haunting that you will be thinking about for long after you've finished reading . . . Another can't-miss Halloween-time read."--Chicago Review of Books

"[Enriquez] established herself as one of the most compelling and important voices in modern literary horror. Now . . . she's back with a collection of 12 stories showcasing her singular approach to dark tales."--Paste Magazine

"Enriquez has made a name for herself blending supernatural horrors with the concrete horrors of everyday life in Argentina. This newest one is a collection of shorts--like a pillowcase full of trick-or-treat candies."--NPR

"A Sunny Place for Shady People reveals as much about ourselves as it does our ineffably strange, horrific world. Enriquez's characters' desperate, longing struggle for meaning and hope has never been so poignant and beautiful, nor so damned chilling. A collection of brilliant nightmares from one of our best."--Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Cabin at the End of the World

"When you gaze into the abyss, Mariana Enriquez looks up to you from those depths, grins to herself, and then gives her attention back to the next story she's pulling into the world."--Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw

"Nobody does horror quite like Enriquez, whose stories linger at the edges of your consciousness long after they've ended."--Literary Hub

"Vivid and unnerving, these stories confirm Enriquez as one of Latin America's most original imaginations."--The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

"A masterful collection . . . these provocative tales are first-rate literary horror."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Enriquez's darkly humorous world view throbs throughout these weird and riveting tales, exerting the morbid fascination of a train wreck. . . . [These stories] are creepy enough to bring a shiver to every reader."--Booklist, starred review

"A triumphant return to the short form."--Reading in Translation

About the Author

Mariana Enriquez is a writer based in Buenos Aires. In English, she has published the novel Our Share of Night and two story collections, Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, which was a finalist for the International Booker Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction.

Megan McDowell has translated many of the most important Latin American writers working today. Her translations have won numerous prizes, including the National Book Award, and have been nominated for the International Booker Prize four times. She is from Richmond, Kentucky, and lives in Santiago, Chile.