Bestselling novelist and British Fantasy Award and Locus Award winning author Silvia Moreno-Garcia was the featured speaker at our 44th Annual Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture that took place September 28, 2023.
Silvia's lecture inlcuded a detailed and engaging discussion of magical realism, as well as an examination of the limiting perceptions and impressions of Latin American literature that result when readers do not have a lot of context, often a single experience reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. This limited experience reduces the whole of Latin American literature to a single writer.
"You might be like, I want to learn more! I want to expand my horizons, so here are some tips from me about how you can read Latin American literature and maybe have a better experience if you haven’t explored it much."
If you haven't explored Latin American literature very much, here are some recommendations Silvia shared to help you get started!
Horror. Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son's lung, nurturing it until in gains sentience, and hides this carnivorous little Monstrilio in the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate, but Monstrilio's innate impulses threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
Horror. In 1981, a young father and son set out on a road trip across Argentina, devastated by the mysterious death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travels to her family home near Iguazú Falls, where they must confront the horrific legacy she has bequeathed.
Science Fiction. Drawing on science fiction, noir, and the philosophical parables of Jorge Luis Borges's Fictions and Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, this collection features fantastical stories in which monsters and aliens abound, but knowing who is the monster and who is the alien is a tricky proposition.
Made possible by Friends of the Library through gifts to The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation.