A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

On the shores of this river, all the birds that fly, drink, perch on branches, and disturb siestas with the demonic squawking of the possessed—all those birds were once women.

Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez. In twelve spellbinding new stories, Enriquez writes about ordinary people, especially women, whose lives turn inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal, and the supernatural. A neighborhood nuisanced by ghosts, a family whose faces melt away, a faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the water tank on the roof, a riverbank populated by birds that used to be women—these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.

Lyrical and hypnotic, heart-stopping and deeply moving, Enriquez’s stories never fail to enthrall, entertain, and leave us shaken. Translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, A Sunny Place for Shady People showcases Enriquez’s unique blend of the literary and the horrific, and underscores why Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, calls her “the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.”

REVIEWS

“Enriquez demonstrates yet again why she’s an undisputed master of short horror.”—Vulture

“Across 12 unnerving tales . . . the bestselling Argentine author and journalist writes of perimenopausal body horror, Kafkaesque transformations, and a town overrun by ghosts.”—Time

“This collection is perfect to read with all the lights in your apartment off except one, alone, alert to every noise, ensuring you’ll be unable to sleep after the last page is finished.”—The Cut

PRODUCT DETAILS
Paperback
Publisher: Hogarth
ISBN:  978-0593733271
Pages: 272