Latin American Short Stories

The characters in Songs for the Flames are men and women touched by violence - sometimes directly, sometimes only in passing - but whose lives are changed forever, consumed by fire and by unexpected encounters and unyielding forces. A photographer becomes obsessed with the traumatic past that an elegant woman, a fellow guest staying at a countryside ranch, would rather leave behind. A military reunion forces a soldier to confront a troubling history, both personal and on a larger scale....

Migration. Betrayal. Family secrets. Doomed love. Uncertain futures. In Daniel Alarcón's hands, these are transformed into deeply human stories with high-stakes. In "The Thousands", people are on the move and forging new paths; hope and heartbreak abound. A man deals with the fallout of his blind relatives' mysterious deaths and his father's mental breakdown and incarceration in "The Bridge". A gang member discovers a way to forgiveness and redemption through the haze of violence and trauma in "The Ballad of Rocky Rontal".

The first ever collection of short stories by Jaime Cortez, Gordo is set in a migrant workers camp near Watsonville, California, in the 1970s.

Oscar Casares' debut collection of short stories was selected as an ALA Notable book and received tremendous praise from publications ranging from the New York Times and the Washington Post to Entertainment Weekly. These nine stories follow a collection of unforgettable characters trying to get by while living in the South Texas border town of Brownsville.

Rosalinda Alameda adores zoos. When Massachusetts's summertime "Free Fridays" promotion features the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Rosalinda grabs her camera and heads east. A full day among lions and tigers is about the best outing she can possibly imagine.

A collection of humorous, sexy, and highly neurotic tales about parenting, long-term relationships, systemic and interpersonal racism, and class conflict from the author of The Town of Babylon, The People Who Report More Stress deftly and poignantly expresses the frustration of knowing the problems and solutions to our society’s inequities but being unable to do anything about them.

Widely acclaimed as a progenitor of 20th-century Latin American fiction, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil's greatest writer. His prodigious output of novels, plays, and stories rivaled contemporaries like Chekhov, Flaubert, and Maupassant, but, shockingly, he was barely translated into English until 1963, and still lacks proper recognition today.

Katia, la primera en su tradicional familia mexicoestadounidense en terminar la secundaria, entra a la edad adulta en una época de cambios turbulentos. En todo el país, los jóvenes luchan por los derechos civiles y de las mujeres, y protestan contra la Guerra de Vietnam y las brutales dictaduras de América del Sur. Como muchos de su generación, Katia quiere hacer del mundo un lugar mejor y está decidida a seguir su propio camino.

This tender love ballad is set deep in the jungles of Mexico and tells the story of Victoriano and Mira Bella, a young couple madly in love with "enormous proliferations of passion". Laid out in colorful, poetic text with a creative ending told in two letters - one written by Victoriano, the other written by an American artist visiting their beautiful world.

One of Oscar Wilde's best-loved short stories, which includes romance, love, and murder. The discussion of murder is light-hearted and witty, in typical Wilde fashion. A must listen for fans of the author.

Young Alice leads an ordinary sort of life until, one day, she follows a rabbit down a hole and embarks on a series of adventures with some of the most weird and wonderful characters anyone has ever encountered! She soon discovers that nothing is ordinary in Wonderland, least of all the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Duchess, and the Mock Turtle.

Despite Carlos' mundane life, killing weeds for his father's rich customers, is billions of miles from the stars he observes in the night sky, or from the kids who sit in the canteen with their healthy sandwiches and bottled water. His life is a billion miles from their reality, and the reality of a stable life in America as he dreams of becoming a citizen. While their families provide them with nice clothes, large houses and cars to travel to school in, Carlos makes do with gas-fumed rags of clothes and a gap between his front teeth. In order to cope, he immerses himself in thoughts of the universe, and learns of black holes, gravity and the beguiling Casimir Effect.

Rosalinda is on her very first date with Christian. But somehow it's not quite the one-on-one experience she was envisioning. It seems the entire crowd has decided to tag along - and who is this over by the African elephants?

Rosalinda, Christian, and the three girls are on an adventure at Southwick's Zoo. There are lions, tigers, deer, and giraffes! But something is not quite right at the zoo. Will the crew figure out what's wrong in time? The Gargling Giraffe is the fourth book in the Rosalinda Alameda Mystery series. These short stories feature the zoos that Rosalinda loves with a passion.

Rosalinda Alameda is in her element. The carousel is spinning, the bears are lounging by their waterfall, and the two elephants are playfully making music with their drums. The brilliant summer sun reminds her of her native Puerto Rico. But despite the warm sunshine and the joyous laughter of the children, Rosalinda can sense that something is not quite right.

Rosalinda Alameda adores zoos. When Massachusetts's summertime "Free Fridays" promotion features the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Rosalinda grabs her camera and heads east. A full day amongst lions and tigers is about the best outing she can possibly imagine. But something's wrong at the zoo, and it'll take a combination of her Puerto Rican common sense and her 50 years of wisdom to unravel the puzzle!

Rosalinda Alameda's dreams are coming true. She's being tested on her zoo knowledge, and if the stars are aligned she might even get that job she has always hoped for. But first comes a practicum at the Capron Park Zoo. Old friends and new faces will challenge her skills....

Rosalinda Alameda had gotten a call from her art-detective friend Cindy, from the sunny island of Key West, Florida. An aquarium there needed help with a mystery. And, given how cold and snowy Massachusetts was in January, Rosalinda was more than happy to lend a hand.

Rosalinda, Christian, and the three girls are enjoying the autumn splendour of King Richard's Faire. It seems there is everything and anything going on at this Renaissance Festival. But trouble brews around the corner....

Rosalinda and her new friends strolled through the 1830s-era 200-acre expanse which was Old Sturbride Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Normally this was an oasis of calm. But because this was the last Free Friday of the summer, it seemed that every child in the region had descended to explore and enjoy. When the group decides to hide out in the farm area, where things might be quieter, they discover a mystery instead!