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  • #BroaderBookshelf 2021: Central America
List

#BroaderBookshelf 2021: Central America

  • Megan M.
  • Friday, January 22, 2021

Collection

Fulfill the "Read a book written by a Central or South American author" prompt with these titles set in Central America.

This list is part of the #BroaderBookshelf 2021 reading challenge.  Find more lists here.

Find additional titles on ebook

Manuelito

Manuelito

A Graphic Novel
Amado, Elisa, author.
Published in 2019
"The powerful story of a child refugee seeking asylum in America Thirteen-year-old Manuelito is a gentle boy who lives with his family in a tiny village in the Guatemalan countryside. But life is far from idyllic: PACs--armed civil patrol--are a constant presence in the streets, and terrifying memories of the country's war linger in the villagers' collective conscience. Things deteriorate further when government-backed drug gangs arrive and take control of the village. Fearing their son will be forced to join a gang, Manuelito's parents make the desperate decision to send him to live with his aunt in America. With just a bus ticket and a small amount of cash in hand, Manuelito begins his hazardous journey to Mexico, then the U.S., in search of asylum. But in the end, dangers such as the crooked "coyote"--Or human smuggler--his parents have entrusted their son's life to may be nothing compared to the risks Manuelito faces when he finally reaches America. Manuelito's titular character is just one of the staggering one hundred thousand children from the Northern Triangle of Central America--Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras--who have made this perilous journey to escape their war-torn countries. Many are now detained in Mexico, separated from their parents and without access to lawyers, facing the unthinkable prospect of being sent back to the homes and danger they risked so much to escape. Drawing on years of experience working with child refugees like Manuelito, Elisa Amado's powerful story, illustrated with striking poignancy by Abraham Urias, brings to light the dire circumstances of so many children, so close to home."-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
 
The Shark and the Sardines.

The Shark and the Sardines.

Arévalo, Juan José, 1904-1990.
Published in 2017
The Shark and the Sardines is a scathing allegorical short story by Juan Jos ̌Arv̌alo Bermejo (1904-1990), who was the first of the reformist presidents of Guatemala (1944-1951). As a country that had seen a series of dictatorships following its independence from Spain, Arv̌alo's 1944 election is considered by historians to be the first fair and democratic election in Guatemala's republican history. Arv̌alo's administration was marked by unprecedented relatively free political life during his six-year term. An educator and philosopher, he understood the need for advancement in individuals, communities, and nations by practical means.
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Ebook
The Mirror of Lida Sal

The Mirror of Lida Sal

Tales Based on Mayan Myths and Guatemalan Legends
Asturias, Miguel Angel.
Published in 1997
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Book
 
The Country Under My Skin

The Country Under My Skin

A Memoir of Love and War
Belli, Gioconda, 1948-
Published in 2002
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Book
 
Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand

Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand

A Novel of Adam and Eve
Belli, Gioconda, 1948-
Published in 2009
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Book
 
Pluriverse

Pluriverse

New and Selected Poems
Cardenal, Ernesto.
Published in 2009
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Book
 
Songs of Life and Hope = Cantos De Vida Y Esperanza

Songs of Life and Hope = Cantos De Vida Y Esperanza

Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916.
Published in 2004
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Book
 
The Long Night of White Chickens

The Long Night of White Chickens

Goldman, Francisco.
Published in 1992
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Book
 
Monastery

Monastery

Halfon, Eduardo, 1971-
Published in 2014
"In Monastery, the nomadic narrator of Eduardo Halfon's critically-acclaimed The Polish Boxer returns to travel from Guatemalan cities, villages, coffee plantations, and border towns to a private jazz concert in New York's Harlem, a former German U-Boat base on the French Breton coast, and Israel, where he escapes from his sister's Orthodox Jewish wedding into an erotic adventure with the enigmatic Tamara. His passing encounters are unforgettable; his relationships, problematic. At once a world citizen and a writer who mistrusts the power of language, he is pursued by history's ghosts and unanswerable questions. He is a cartographer of identity on a compelling journey to an uncertain destination. As he draws and redraws his boundaries, he confronts us with the limitations of our own. Eduardo Halfon was named one of the best young Latin American writers by the Hay Festival of Bogota and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the prestigious Jose; Maria de Pereda Prize for the Short Novel. The Polish Boxer, his first book to appear in English, was a New York Times Editor's Choice selection and finalist for the International Latino Book Award. Halfon currently lives in Nebraska and frequently travels to Guatemala. "-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
 
The Polish Boxer

The Polish Boxer

Halfon, Eduardo, 1971-
Published in 2012
The narrator, a Guatemalan literature professor, encounters a number of interesting characters, including a Serbian classical pianist, a young Israeli woman, and a Mayan poet, before persuing his most enigmatic subject--himself.
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Book
 
Mourning

Mourning

Halfon, Eduardo, 1971- author.
Published in 2018
In Mourning, Eduardo Halfon's eponymous narrator travels to Poland, Italy, the U.S., and the Guatemalan countryside in search of secrets he can barely name. He follows memory's strands back to his maternal roots in Jewish Poland and to the contradictory, forbidden stories of his father's Lebanese-Jewish immigrant family, specifically surrounding the long-ago childhood death by drowning of his uncle Salomón. But what, or who, really killed Salomón? As he goes deeper, he realizes that the truth lies buried in his own past, in the brutal Guatemala of the 1970s and his subsequent exile to the American South.
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Complete Works & Other Stories

Complete Works & Other Stories

Monterroso, Augusto.
Published in 1995
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Book
 
Unfinished Conquest

Unfinished Conquest

The Guatemalan Tragedy
Perera, Victor, 1934-
Published in 1993
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Book
 
Corazón

Corazón

Salgado, Yesika, author.
Published in 2017
Corazón is a love story. It is about the constant hunger for love. It is about feeding that hunger with another person and finding that sometimes it isn't enough. Salgado creates a world in which the heart can live anywhere; her fat brown body, her parents home country, a lover, a toothbrush, a mango, or a song. It is a celebration of heartache, of how it can ruin us, but most importantly how we always survive it and return to ourselves whole.
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Book
 
Author

Megan M.

Research & Readers' Advisory Professional

Likes a good mix of fiction and nonfiction, especially international fiction and books with a strong sense of place.

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