My reading list except it’s only Spanish and Latin American literature

One of my favorite ways to prepare for the year ahead, or for a return to reading after a slump, is to go through my reading list and pick out the books I’m most excited to read. The books that interest me tend to fall into four (vibes-based) categories:

Strange and unsettling
- May be scary, may be just plain weird
Atmospheric
- Heartwarming, depressing, or both
Nonfiction
- A bit of everything. Skews depressing because such is life
Epics, big and small
- Buckle up, we’re crossing space and time

I’ve carved out the books in Spanish from my list to share with fellow readers in search of inspiration, so if these sound like the types of books you’re into, read on.

And just a reminder, I haven’t read any of these books yet, so I cannot vouch for their quality. (For tried-and-tested book recommendations, go here.) In my opinion, they look good enough to open up and start reading, and I hope you think so as well. I’ve summed up each book’s description in 1-2 sentences to make that decision a little easier.

Strange and unsettling

🇦🇷 Las indignas by Agustina Bazterrica

Diary entries shed light on life in a mysterious, post-apocalyptic, all-women cult.
Novel
192 pages
Published 2023
✅ Translated into other languages

🇺🇾 Desastres naturales by Tamara Silva Bernaschina

Nature scenes in the moments before a natural disaster wipes them out.
Short story collection
111 pages
Published 2023
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇲🇽 Mujer con botarga by Irasema Corpus

The description doesn’t give me much to go on, so I’ll just say creepy stories.
Short story collection
146 pages
Published 2024

🇦🇷 Todos los fuegos el fuego by Julio Cortázar

Creepy stories: magical realism edition.
Short story collection
198 pages
Published 1966
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Tan tonta by Carlos Catena Cózar

The horror of being an au pair.
Novel
168 pages
Published 2023
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇦🇷 La primera enemiga de una chica es su madre by Milagros Lagarejo

Creepy stories: your mom edition.
Short story collection
88 pages
Published 2022
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇨🇺 El cielo de la selva by Elaine Vilar Madruga

The jungle provides women a refuge from violence, but it’s also hungry for human flesh and obligatory pregnancy.
Novel
352 pages
Published 2023
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Carcoma by Layla Martínez

A grandmother and a granddaughter inhabit a class-conscious haunted house.
Novel
144 pages
Published 2021
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇨 Mandíbula by Mónica Ojeda

A group of schoolgirls form a club to tell scary stories, but it soon becomes a cult of personality and a crucible for female sexuality.
Novel
288 pages
Published 2018
✅ Translated into other languages

🇲🇽 Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo

A man returns to his mother’s old, abandoned village and finds it teeming with ghosts.
Novel
132 pages
Published 1955
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Nana de sombras by Marina Tena Tena

Creepy stories: monsters under the bed edition.
Collection of novellas
388 pages
Published 2021
🚫 Translated into other languages

Atmospheric

🇪🇸 La conformista by Alba Dedeu, translated from Catalan by the author

When you come home from work smelling like chicken every day and wonder if you’ve sleepwalked through life always choosing the safe option.
Novella
116 pages
Published 2024
✅ Translated into other languages

🇦🇷 La vida por delante by Magalí Etchebarne

The tragicomedy of relationships and aging.
Short story collection
120 pages
Published 2024
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇨🇴 La perra by Pilar Quintana

Surviving poverty and misery, and adopting a mutt in place of the child you couldn’t have.
Novella
112 pages
Published 2017
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Supersaurio by Meryem El Mehdati

A woman in her twenties tries to retain her spark while working in the offices of a supermarket chain.
Novel
320 pages
Published 2022
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Oposición by Sara Mesa

A woman navigates kafkaesque bureaucracy and office politics in her job at an administrative agency.
Novel
206 pages
Published 2025
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Estoy fatal, gracias by Lara Pickle

A young witch in a low fantasy version of London struggles with mental health as she enters the workforce.
Graphic novel
214 pages
Published 2022
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Manuel no vivía en Moral de la Magdalena by Alberto Porras Chavarino

A story within a story as the narrator reviews a manuscript left behind by his dead brother.
Novella
104 pages
Published 2024
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 La muela by Rosario Villajos

A woman moves to London to escape family problems, but her new life also sucks.
Novel
224 pages
Published 2021
🚫 Translated into other languages

Nonfiction

🇲🇽 Lo lingüístico es político by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil and others

Three women discuss how language can be a tool of both oppression and revolution.
Essay collection
81 pages
Published 2019
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇦🇷 Estrechamente vigilados por la locura by Héctor Anabitarte

Vignettes form an autobiographical view into the Argentinian queer community in the 60s-70s.
Book
200 pages
Published 1982
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Un aborto, 8000 pesetas by Paula Boira

The history of abortion rights – and the women who fought for them – in Spain during the era of Franco.
Book
304 pages
Published 2025
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Arena en los ojos by Laura Casielles

A review of past and present literature on Spain’s colonial relations with Morocco and the Western Sahara.
Book
403 pages
Published 2024
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇦🇷 Teoría de la gravedad by Leila Guerriero

A selection of the author’s opinion columns published in El País.
Essay collection
212 pages
Published 2019
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Las 100 mejores películas anime by Álvaro López Martín and David Heredia Pitarch

I want more movie recs.
List
272 pages
Published 2021
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇲🇽 El invencible verano de Liliana by Cristina Rivera Garza

A woman reconstructs her younger sister’s life through letters, writings, and testimonials from those who knew her before her life was cut short at twenty by her abusive ex-boyfriend.
Memoir/biography
304 pages
Published 2021
✅ Translated into other languages

Epics, big and small

🇨🇱 Estrella distante by Roberto Bolaño

The narrator follows a mysterious aviator-poet across Chile under Pinochet’s dictatorship.
Novel
160 pages
Published 1996
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

A guy decides being a storybook knight would be more fun than being a normie and sets off for a life of adventure.
Novel
1023 pages
Published 1605-1615
✅ Translated into other languages

🇨🇴 Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez

A massive family saga where things just kinda happen, as if in a dream. ~Magical Realism~
Novel
747 pages
Published 1967
✅ Translated into other languages

🇨🇴 Donde cantan las ballenas by Sara Jaramillo Klinkert

A young girl searches for answers about her missing father and meets a parade of strange characters in the process.
Novel
368 pages
Published 2021
✅ Translated into other languages

🇦🇷 Los Sorias by Alberto Laiseca

An over-the-top, satirical alternate Earth locked in a cold war (that reportedly leaves readers asking what the heck they just read).
Novel
1328 pages
Published 1998
🚫 Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 La mala costumbre by Alana S. Portero

Coming-of-age of a young working-class trans girl in 80s-90s Spain.
Novel
252 pages
Published 2023
✅ Translated into other languages

🇪🇸 La plaza del Diamante by Mercè Rodoreda, translated from Catalan by Enrique Sordo

An ordinary woman lives through spousal abuse, scarcity, and single motherhood. Oh, and the Spanish Civil War is going on in the background.
Novel
256 pages
Published 1962
✅ Translated into other languages