SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
Best of 2023: Letters from Latin America
LEO BOIX selects the best of non-fiction, fiction, poetry and children’s picture books
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
RON JACOBS welcomes the translation into English of an angry cry from the place they call the periphery
GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends a useful book aimed at informing activists with local examples of solidarity in action around the world
HENRY BELL is provoked by a book that looks toward, but does not fully explore the question of who gets to imagine the shapes of cities to come
IT has been a remarkable year for Latinx and Latin American literature in Britain, with books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry exploring a rich culture, traditions, individual stories, and a whole region still much under-represented in the British publishing world.
Memoir & Fiction
In 2023, one of the most notable publications was Solito (Oneworld, £10.99) by Salvadorian-American poet and activist Javier Zamora. The memoir tells the story of Zamora’s journey as a nine-year-old nicknamed Chepito to reunite with his parents in the US. They had fled El Salvador due to the civil war and lack of opportunities.
Zamora’s journey lasted seven weeks and spanned over 4,000 kilometres. It is a remarkable contribution to migration literature, portraying the challenges and hope of those who embark on such journeys.
Similar stories
A novel by Argentinian Jorge Consiglio, a personal dictionary by Uruguayan Ida Vitale, and poetry by Mexican Homero Aridjis
LEO BOIX selects the best books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction written by Latinx and Latin American authors published this year
From Argentina, a novel by Federico Falco and a collection of chronicles by Hebe Uhart; and poetry by Belarusian-Argentinean Natalia Litvinova, and Chilean Vicente Huidobro
Short stories by Bolivian Liliana Colanzi, a novel by Mexican Mateo Garcia Elizondo, and epic poetry by Nicaraguan Pablo Antonio Cuadra