![]() First edition | |
Author | Mariana Enriquez |
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Original title | Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego |
Translator | Megan McDowell |
Country | Argentina |
Language | Spanish |
Genre | Short Stories |
Publisher | Anagrama |
Publication date | 2016 |
Published in English | 2017 |
Media type | Hardcover |
Pages | 208 |
ISBN | 978-0451495112 |
Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories (Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez, published in 2016 by the Editorial Anagrama.[1] Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017.[2] The work has 12 stories framed in the horror genre, in which Enríquez explores social issues such as depression, poverty,[3] eating disorders,[4] inequality and gender violence.[5][6] The name of the work is taken from the album Things We Lost in the Fire, released in 2001 by the American band Low, of which Enríquez is a fan.[7]
"The Intoxicated Years" was published in Granta.[8] "Spiderweb" appeared in The New Yorker.[9]
Story |
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"The Dirty Kid" |
"The Inn" |
"The Intoxicated Years" |
"Adela's House" |
"An Invocation of the Big-Eared Runt" |
"Spiderweb" |
"End of Term" |
"No Flesh Over Our Bones" |
"The Neighbor's Courtyard" |
"Under the Black Water" |
"Green Red Orange" |
"Things We Lost in the Fire" |
Reviews of the collection highlighted Enriquez's dark and haunting style. A review in The Guardian called the collection "gruesome, violent, upsetting – and bright with brilliance."[10] Jennifer Szalai, writing in The New York Times, wrote "[Enriquez] is after a truth more profound, and more disturbing, than whatever the strict dictates of realism will allow."[11]
In a review in Vanity Fair, Sloane Crosley was impressed by Enriquez's skill at using supernatural stories to explore Argentina's political turmoil: "In her hands, the country’s inequality, beauty, and corruption tangle together to become a manifestation of our own darkest thoughts and fears."[12]