Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by exploring this rich selection of Latine stories and histories from Grove Atlantic. Our nonfiction titles offer a window into the diverse history of Hispanic heritage, and the stories feature powerful explorations of complex family dynamics, divided identity, and span across Latin America and the United States. Find your next read from these amazing titles!

 

Before the End, After the Beginning by Dagoberto Glib

An exquisite collection of ten stories that takes readers through the American Southwest, from Los Angeles and Albuquerque to El Paso and Austin. Written in the aftermath of a stroke and pulling from his experiences during recovery, Dagoberto Gilb covers a mother and son’s relationship in the story “Uncle Rock,” a character looking to shed his mixed-up past in “The Last Time I Saw Junior,” and in the collection’s most personal story, “Please, Thank you” follows a man who has been hospitalized with a stroke.

“Gilb unearths a sense of profound human longing and a dream of harmony which (the stories makes perfectly clear) could be reached no other way.”—Richard Ford

 

How to Draw a Novel by Martín Solares

In this finely wrought collection of essays, Martín Solares examines the novel in all its forms, exploring the conventions of structure, the novel as a house that one must build brick by brick, and the objects and characters that build out the world of the novel in unique and complex ways. Solares breaks out of the Anglo-American dominated canon of many craft books, ranging across Latin and South America as well. This is a writer’s book, and an important contribution to the study of craft and fiction.

“How to Draw a Novel . . . brings whimsy and ingenuity to a genre lacking in both.”—Marek Makowski, On the Sea Wall

 

Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman

Monkey Boy tells the tale of Franciso Goldberg, a middle-aged writer who grapples with the challenges of family and love and growing up Guatemalan and Jewish in America. A sweeping story about the impact of divided identity—whether Jewish/Catholic, white/brown, native/expat—and one misfit’s quest to heal his damaged past and find love. Told in an intimate irresistibly funny and passionate voice, this extraordinary portrait of family and growing up “halfie,” unearths the hidden cruelties in a predominantly white, working-class Boston suburbs and explores the pressures of living between worlds.

“Monkey Boy is written with tenderness and emotional precision. Goldman bridges the gap between imagination and memory with stunning lyricism and unsparing clarity.”―Colm Tóibín

 

Gordo by Jaime Cortez

The first ever collection of short stories by Jaime Cortez is set in a migrant workers camp near Watsonville, California in the 1970s. Following different characters like Gordo, a young, probably gay, boy who puts on a wrestler’s, Fat Cookie, a high schooler and resident artist who draws murals along the camp’s blank, and Log Tigres, a pair of twins who end up assaulting each other in a drunken brawl. These scenes from within Steinbeck Country are full of humor, family drama, and a sweet frankness about serious matters—who belongs to America and how are they treated?

“Jaime Cortez is a wise guy with a wide heart, who sees what ‘no one else wants to see.’”—Sandra Cisneros

 

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo

Now an original film streaming on Netflix

Dive into the otherworldly tale of one man’s quest for his lost father. That man swears to his dying mother that he will find the father he has never met—Pedro Páramo. When he reaches Comala, a town haunted by memories and hallucinations, he learns the tragic tale of Páramo himself. Published in a new translation from Douglas J. Weatherford, and featuring a foreword by Gabriel García Márquez, this new edition of the novel cements its place as one of the seminal literary texts of the twentieth century.

“That night I didn’t sleep until I’d read it twice.”—Gabriel García Márquez

 

El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America by Carrie Gibson

A sweeping saga of the Spanish history and influence in North America over five centuries. El Norte chronicles the dramatic history of Hispanic North America from the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century to the present. Interwoven in this stirring narrative of events and people are cultural issues that have been there from the start and remain unsolved: language, belonging, community, race, and nationality.

“Carrie Gibson has written an epic history which will significantly change the way we look at American history . . . Her research is meticulous in detail and her writing propels the reader through 500 years to transport them to today.”—Richard Parker, author of Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America

 

The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz has long been acknowledged as Mexico’s foremost writer and critic. In this international classic, Paz has written one of the most enduring and powerful works ever created on Mexico and its people, character, and culture. This essay collection contains writings that offer penetrating commentary to the United States and Latin America.

“The Labyrinth of Solitude is essential to an understanding of [Mexico] and, by extension, Latin America and the third world.”—The Village Voice

 

City of Night by John Rechy

Bold and inventive in style, John Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling “youngman” and his search for self-knowledge within the neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and the denizens of their world. As the narrator moves from El Paso to Times Square, from Pershing Square to the French Quarter, Rechy delivers a portrait of the edges of America that has lost none of its power to move and exhilarate.

“Rechy’s tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own, and he has the kind of discipline which allows him a rare and beautiful recklessness . . . This is a most humbling and liberating achievement.”—James Baldwin

 

Vida by Patricia Engel

Vida follows a single narrator, 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. Sabina acts as a constant throughout this collection of short stories—open to transformation yet skeptical of its lasting power. Infused by a hard-won, edgy wisdom, Vida introduces a sensational new literary voice.

“Gloriously gifted and alarmingly intelligent, Patricia Engel writes with an almost fable-like intensity . . . Here, friends, is the debut I have been waiting for.”—Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Make sure to check out this informative upcoming release!

Mexico: A 500-Year History by Paul Gillingham

Out November 18th

From acclaimed and prize-winning historian Paul Gillingham, comes a rich and vibrant history of one of the world’s most diverse, politically ground-breaking, and influential of countries. The history of Mexico has been one of suffering empire but also of overcoming. As elegantly written as it is powerful in scope, rich in character and anecdote, Mexico uses the latest research to dazzling effect, showing how often Mexico has been a dynamic and vital shaper of world affairs.

“In taking on half a millennium of Mexican history, Gillingham deftly maneuvers to convey both its ironies and complexities. It is a wild ride.”—Erika Pani, author of Torn Asunder and Professor of History, El Colegio de Mexico