One Book per Month, 12 Options to Meet your Reading Goals in 2023

The consumption of literature in Latin America resists despite having accommodated to new formats such as audiobooks or eBooks. Before, during and after the 'Latin American Boom' there are a series of titles that are still valid on bookstore shelves. We leave 12 recommendations for titles written by Latino authors who have a variety of themes and genres.

January: "The Question in Their Eyes", Eduardo Sacheri

If you still have soccer fever at its peak for the World Cup, this title by the Argentine writer has a powerful ending in which the passion for this sport exposes a suspect. This happens when the protagonist seeks to take justice into his own hand for the murder of his partner.

February: “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, Gabriel García Márquez

This book year after year gains repercussion as one of the required readings that stem from the 'Latin American Boom'. However, by 2023 the book will gain some relevance due to the series that Netflix will make based on the work of the Colombian writer.

March: “Desolation", Gabriela Mistral

In this 2022 the first century of the publication of what was the first collection of poems by the Chilean Gabriela Mistral was completed. With this work, she established herself in the poetry scene to become the only Latin American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature up to now.

April: “Hot Sur", Laura Restrepo

One of the biggest problems in the world during the last decade is that of migration. There is no more appropriate story that addresses the subject than this book by Laura Restrepo through her character María Paz. In this case, Latino migration to the United States is addressed.

May: "The Man Who Loved Dogs", Leonardo Padura

Leonardo Padura has been becoming one of the most important voices in literature made in the Caribbean. With this novel, he consolidated his name on the Latin American scene. In the novel, he mixes fiction and reality for the story of the assassination of Leon Trotsky at the hands of Ramón Mercader in Mexico.

June: “Pedro Páramo", Juan Rulfo

Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges at the time acclaimed the work that for many laid the foundations of magical realism. It is a kind of Latin Odyssey in which the character Pedro Preciado returns to Cómala to visit his father and finds a territory with a dreamlike landscape with mysterious characters who share the last name Páramo.

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July: “Diana's Tree", Alejandra Pizarnik

This work helped the poet from Avellaneda find her tone in poetry. She has been one of the authors who have been studied from what she lived, how that influenced her work and vice versa. The collection of poems consists of 38 poems that address an unfolding of Pizarnik and death has a lot of weight.

August: “Like Water for Chocolate", Laura Esquivel

Tita, the protagonist of the novel, became an icon of Latino literature. The story tells of her relationship with her love affairs and her family during the early 20th century. The writer, who served as a politician in Mexico, premiered this book in 1989 and is a regular on lists of the best books in Spanish.

September: “Martín Fierro", José Hernández

Jorge Luis Borges in his work has dozens of references to this work published in the 19th century and which is considered the most important in Argentina. The narrative poem reveals the social tension that exists between natives and what is called civilized through the protagonist.

October: “The Passion According to GH”, Clarice Lispector

Returning to her maid's room, GH is the victim of an epiphany after stepping on a cockroach. The event helps her to review key moments in her life and, later, overcome her fears. Currently, the Brazilian author is also considered an icon of Latin American feminism.

November: “The Open Veins of Latin America", Eduardo Galeano

Eduardo Galeano made what is probably one of the best literary series on the history of Latin America. Although its structure is not fictional, the literary weight makes the book an obligatory essay for lovers of literature.

December: “Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands", Jorge Amado

Those who like eroticism find in this novel a classic of the genre. It follows the life of Doña Flor, a teacher who must choose between unbridled desire or a rational and more conservative love with the two husbands she had.