"A good introduction is Buenos Aires Noir, in the ever-reliable Akashic Noir series, edited by the novelist Ernesto Mallo. Mallo himself is a playwright, script writer and crime novelist with the Superintendent Lascano series, a couple of which have been translated into English."--CrimeReads, included in a roundup of Crime Novels of Buenos Aires"Crimes of passion, politics, and perversity pervade the 14 selections in Akashic's noir volume d...

From the beloved and award-winning author Junot Díaz, a spellbinding saga of a family’s journey through the New World.A coming-of-age story of unparalleled power, Drown introduced the world to Junot Díaz's exhilarating talents. It also introduced an unforgettable narrator— Yunior, the haunted, brilliant young man who tracks his family’s precarious journey from the barrios of Santo Domingo to the tenements of industrial New Jersey, and their epic passage fr...

Garnering international prizes and acclaim before its publication, Ilustrado has been called "brilliantly conceived and stylishly executed . . .It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humor" (2008 Man Asian Literary Prize panel of judges).It begins with a body. On a clear day in winter, the battered corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River—taken from the world is the controversial lion of Philippine literature. Gone, ...

“Bowden Simón captures Cuba’s enduring allure in her debut memoir . . . She uncovers the indomitable soul of the island and finds a balm for her own” (Denise DiFulco, former senior editor, Latina magazine).La Americana is the story of Melanie Bowden Simón, who, at the age of twenty-five, left her job at Tina Brown’s Talk magazine following the death of her mother and decided to take a vacation in Havana, Cuba, with a frie...

A collection of stories by Sandra Cisneros, the celebrated bestselling author of The House on Mango Street and the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.The lovingly drawn characters of these stories give voice to the vibrant and varied life on both sides of the Mexican border with tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom.

Jason Blue is a 1950s hard boiled detective out of San Francisco. He's hired to go down to pre-Castro, decadent Havana to find a rich American lost in the tropical turmoil of sex, drugs and politics. The result is nothing like anybody expected. Cynical, sexy and thrilling, Jason joins the ranks of world weary professionals like Sam Spade and Phillip Marlow, doing the job well, no matter the cost.

In this literary debut, a young girl tells of her traumatic life via a Mexican card game in a "heart-wrenching tale of violence, love and a broken family" ( Los Angeles Times).With her older sister Estrella in the ICU and her father in jail, eleven-year-old Luz Castillo has been taken into the custody of the state. Alone in her room, she retreats behind a wall of silence, writing in her journal and shuffling through her beloved deck of lotería cards, a Lati...

A New York Times Notable Book, an NPR Best Debut of the Year, and a PEN/Hemingway finalist.These linked stories follow Sabina as she navigates her shifting identity as a daughter of the Colombian diaspora, and struggles to find her place within and beyond the net of her strong, protective, but embattled family.In "Lucho," Sabina's family—already "foreigners in a town of blancos"—is shunned by the community when a relative commits an unspeakable act of viole...

Luis Negrón’s debut collection reveals the intimate world of a small community in Puerto Rico joined together by its transgressive sexuality. The writing straddles the shifting line between pure, unadorned storytelling and satire, exploring the sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking nature of survival in a decidedly cruel world.

The internationally acclaimed author of The House on Mango Street and winner of the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature gives us a deeply moving tale of loss, grief, and healing: a lyrically told, richly illustrated fable for grown-ups about a woman’s search for a cat who goes missing in the wake of her mother’s death.The word “orphan” might not seem to apply to a fifty-three-year-old woman. Yet this is exactly how Sandra feels as...

"[A] superb collection . . . The 18 stories by current and former residents of Havana are gritty, heartbreaking and capture the city." — Orlando SentinelTo most outsiders, Havana is a tropical sin city. Habaneros know that this is neither new nor particularly true. In the real Havana—the lawless Havana that never appears in the postcards or tourist guides—the concept of sin has been banished by the urgency of need. And need—aching and hungry—inevitably tur...

A candid, sexy and wonderfully mood-strewn collection of poetry that celebrates the female aspects of love, from the reflective to the overtly erotic. • From the bestselling author of The House on Mango Street and winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.“Not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review“All poets would do well to follow the ...