Here's another short list of soon to be published literature. Eagerly anticipated, these three offer a kaleidoscope of genres, subjects, and creativity.
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Alia Trabucco Zerán, Translated by Sophie Hughes
Riverhead Books - October 15, 2024
[from the publisher]
A young girl has died and the family’s maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl’s death.
Estela came from the countryside, leaving her mother behind, to work for the señor and señora when their only child was born. They wanted a housemaid: “smart appearance, full time,” their ad said. She wanted to make enough money to support her mother and return home. For seven years, Estela cleaned their laundry, wiped their floors, made their meals, kept their secrets, witnessed their fights and frictions, raised their daughter. She heard the rats scrabbling in the ceiling, saw the looks the señor gave the señora; she knew about the poison in the cabinet, the gun, the daughter’s rebellion as she grew up, the mother’s coldness, the father’s distance. She saw it all.
After a series of shocking betrayals and revelations, Estela stops speaking, breaking her silence only now, to tell the story of how it all fell apart. Is this a story of revenge or a confession? Class warfare or a cautionary tale? Building tension with every page, Clean is a gripping, incisive exploration of power, domesticity, and betrayal from an international star at the height of her powers.
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Mayra Santos-Febres
Vintage Espanol- November 5, 2024
[from the publisher]
The narrator of this novel, a writer, has published a biography about the emblematic and controversial Julia de Burgos. What begins as a simple commission will end up being a way to better understand the character and her work, but also a map to understand the lives of so many Latin American authors, including that of the author herself. With her book, she travels to different cities, attends presentations and gives lectures, while trying to keep her family afloat.
Linking her own life alongside that of the narrator and Julia Burgos, Mayra Santos-Febres constructs a gripping story about the difficult lives of Afro-Caribbean women writers who make their way into the elitist literary circles of their country. This is the story of two women who make literature a place of resistance and freedom.
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Isabella Maldonado
Thomas & Mercer - January 21, 2025
[from the author's web page]
During a recent undercover sting gone bad, hit man Gustavo Toro died in the arms of FBI Special Agent Daniela “Dani” Vega. But Toro had secrets he refused to take to the grave.
In the event of his death, Toro left behind a video that promises to expose a mysterious mastermind who has been operating with impunity for decades. But there’s a catch. Dani’s team must follow Toro’s cryptic clues on a cross-country hunt for justice, and piecing together his past is more twisted than Dani could have imagined.
But as Dani and her team race to gather the evidence, it’s clear this powerful adversary will stop at nothing to keep their secrets—including eliminating those who threaten to reveal them.
During a recent undercover sting gone bad, hit man Gustavo Toro died in the arms of FBI Special Agent Daniela “Dani” Vega. But Toro had secrets he refused to take to the grave.
In the event of his death, Toro left behind a video that promises to expose a mysterious mastermind who has been operating with impunity for decades. But there’s a catch. Dani’s team must follow Toro’s cryptic clues on a cross-country hunt for justice, and piecing together his past is more twisted than Dani could have imagined.
But as Dani and her team race to gather the evidence, it’s clear this powerful adversary will stop at nothing to keep their secrets—including eliminating those who threaten to reveal them.
Later.
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Manuel Ramos writes crime fiction.
Manuel Ramos writes crime fiction.
