The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
Following the "propulsive and mesmerizing" (New York Times Book Review) Things We Lost in the Fire comes a new collection of singularly unsettling stories, by an Argentine author who has earned comparisons to Shirley Jackson and Jorge Luis Borges.
Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre: populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her next collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken -- fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history -- with unsettling urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can't let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death by a question of morality they fail to answer correctly.
Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with resounding tenderness towards those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, this new collection from one of Argentina's most exciting writers finds Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.
Contents:
- Angelita Unearthed (El desentierro de la angelita)
- Our Lady of the Quarry (La Virgen de la tosquera)
- The Cart (El carrito)
- The Well (El aljibe)
- Rambla Triste (Rambla Triste)
- The Lookout (El mirador)
- Where Are You, Dear Heart? (Dónde estás corazón)
- Meat (Carne)
- No Birthdays or Baptisms (Ni cumpleaños ni bautismos)
- Kids Who Come Back (Chicos que faltan)
- The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (Los peligros de fumar en la cama)
- Back When We Talked to the Dead (Cuando hablábamos con los muertos)
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Mariana Enríquez
Mariana Enríquez (Buenos Aires, 1973) is an Argentine journalist, novelist, and short story writer.
Mariana Enríquez holds a degree in Journalism and Social Communication from the National University of La Plata. She works as a journalist and is the deputy editor of the arts and culture section of the newspaper Página/12 an she dictates literature workshops. She has published the novels: Bajar es lo peor (Espasa Calpe, 1995), Cómo desaparecer completamente (Emecé, 2004) and Nuestra parte de noche (Anagrama, 2019). She has also written the short story books: Los peligros de fumar en la cama (Emecé, 2009), Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (Editorial Anagrama, 2016) and the novelette Chicos que vuelven (Eduvim, 2010). Her stories have appeared in anthologies of Spain, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia and Germany.
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