MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
Letters From Latin America: July 28, 2022
LEO BOIX reviews fiction by Argentinian Ariana Harwicz and Colombian Cristina Bendek, and poetry collections by Bolivian Rocio Agreda Pierola and Anglo-Argentine Miguel Cullen

SALT CRYSTALS (Charco Press, £11.99) is Cristina Bendek debut novel.
The book, flawlessly translated by Robyn Myers, recounts the story of Victoria Baruq, a young woman of mixed Raizal (Afro-Caribbeans from the Colombian archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina) and Lebanese ancestry, who has lived for several years in Mexico City.
She decides to return to San Andres, her birthplace, after the sudden death of both her parents.
More from this author

A novel by Argentinian Jorge Consiglio, a personal dictionary by Uruguayan Ida Vitale, and poetry by Mexican Homero Aridjis

Travelogue/reportage by Argentinean Maria Sonia Cristoff, and poetry by Peruvian Gaston Fernandez and Puerto Rican Cristina Perez Diaz

A pamphlet by British Latinx poet Patrick Romero McCafferty, poetry by Anglo-Argentinian Miguel Cullen, and a book of conjuring poems by Mexican Pedro Serrano

LEO BOIX selects the best books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction written by Latinx and Latin American authors published this year