Top 10 Latin-American Summer Reads

like what for chocolateLove in the time Cholera

Planning a wedding can be stressful, but we here at World Bride Magazine encourage our brides to step away from the pressures of it all and take some downtime to curl up with a good book, and in honor of Latin week we suggest these Latin authors and works of literature. Organizing your big day can take a lot from you, but taking some time out of your day to read one of these acclaimed novels will be sure to de-stress you and make your wedding planning process a little less hectic and little more enjoyable.

 

 

  1. Carlos Fuentes: His work has been praised by the New York Times and has many accolades in his name. His novel, “The Death of Artemio Cruz” (La muerte de Artemio Cruz), follows a soldier/politician on his deathbed recalling the events of the Mexican Revolution through the development of the Party of the Institutional.
  2. Isabel Allende: Known to be “The World’s Most Widely Read Spanish-Language Author,” she has received many literary awards. Her famous novel, “The House of Spirits” (La casa de los espiritus), details the lives of the Trueba family through four generations, showcasing the social and political disorders in Chile.
  3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Considered one of the most prominent writers of the 20th century, his use of magic realism is showcased in “Love in the time of Cholera” (El amor en los tiempos del colera). Two people fall in love only to be separated by wealth and greed, but their love stands the test of time as they both reserve their hearts for each other.
  4. Octavio Paz: Winner of multiple literary accolades, he is known for his diverse use of themes. His play, “La hija de Rappaccini”, is about an Italian student who wanders around his professor’s garden to spy on his beautiful daughter. This play combines elements of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” with the works of Indian poet Vishakhadatta and William Butler Yeats.
  5. Roberto Bolana: He received the Romulo Gallegos Prize for his novel “The Savage Detectives” (Los detectives salvajes), which is about a Chilean and Mexican poet in the 1970s on the search for a 1920s’ Mexican poet.
  6. Miguel Angel Asturias: Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize, his most famous novel, “El Señor Presidente”, tells the story of a brutal dictator and his schemes to arrange a political opponent in a nameless Latin American country.
  7. Mario Vargas Llosa: As recipient of a Nobel Prize in Literature, his novels cover a wide variety of genres like political thrillers, comedies, murder mysteries, etc. His novel “Conversation in the Cathedral” is about Peru under the dictatorship of Manuel A. Odria in the 1950s and how various characters from different walks of life and social status deal with it.
  8. Sandra Cisneros: She uses her real life experiences as a writer. Her most prominent novel is actually her very first. “The House on Mango Street” follows a young Latina girl growing up with Puerto Ricans in Chicago on a conquest for a better life.
  9. Alejo Carpentier: He delved into themes of Afro-Cubanism and magic realism in a majority of his writings. One of his most well-known novels, “The Kingdom of this World” (El reino de este mundo), follows the plot of a character living in Haiti during and after the Haitian Revolution.
  10. Laura Esquivel: Her bestselling novel, “Like Water for Chocolate” (Como Agua Para Chocolate), follows a girl longing to marry her lover; however, according to family tradition of being the youngest, she is not allowed to marry and instead must be the one to care for her mother until the day she dies. The only way she can express her love is when she cooks.

 

 

House-Spirits-Isabel-Allende                    el-senor-presidente-miguel-angel-asturias_

 

 

 

 

Now take a break and head to your nearest library or bookstore to check out these great reads!

 

 

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