Have you read You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue?

This was my second read from Enrigue, as I read his most recent English-language publication, Now I Surrender (2026), back in April, but I am no doubt greatly interested in reading more from Álvaro, considering I believe him to be one of the most important writers working in Spanish today.

Curiously, for some reason unbeknownst to me, although You Dreamed of Empires (Tu sueño imperios han sido) was written after Now I Surrender (Ahora me rindo y eso es todo)—as Enrigue himself puts it in his Acknowledgements, “in the plague years of 2020-2022”—it was released in English (2024) before Now I Surrender, which was originally published in Spanish in 2018.

Personally, I feel that You Dreamed of Empires and Now I Surrender are very much in conversation with one another, as both works are invested in exploring the history of conflict between Europeans (and/or Euro-descendants) and indigenous peoples in the Americas as well as the specter of colonialism that continues to haunt the present across the Western Hemisphere, not to mention the globe. Similarly, much of the experimentation with style and form that I encountered in Now I Surrender also makes an appearance—perhaps even more notably—in You Dreamed of Empires.

Right up front, please know that for those of you who happen to take on this novel, I would strongly encourage you to first read the “Note to English-Language Readers” included in the book’s front matter, as the information included therein will certainly aid you in navigating the text and its challenging vocabulary. Enrigue also includes a list of characters for readers to refer back to, as there is quite a cast in You Dreamed of Empires, and all the unique names can be rather hard to keep track of initially, at least until one gets into the groove of the novel.

You Dreamed of Empires is broken up into four parts and the narrative revolves around a nap taken by Moctezuma. While the narrative does make leaps through time on a number of occasions, most of it takes place over the course of a single day: the day Hernán Cortés and his band of conquistadors arrived in Tenochtitlán on November 8, 1519. Find an excerpt below for a little taste of the novel:

“The afternoon of November 8, 1519, Moctezuma did exactly what he always did after eating, even if the whole world might change forever from the moment he woke up. He lapped the paste of magic mushrooms and honey from the Oaxacan black-clay spoon handed to him by the serving girl, and sat in the sun until he felt his eyes closing. Amid a now absolute silence he walked to his room and his bed. He took off his cape, his mantle, and his breechcloth, and got under the goose-feather coverlet. He pulled it up to his eyebrows and fell asleep.” (75).

The narrator of You Dreamed of Empires is omniscient yet also self-referential (Enrigue basically pulls a Cervantes and shows up in his own novel at one point; see Part II of Don Quixote, 1615), as there exist some striking, if not brief, moments of metafiction that flash like lightning before the reader's eyes. One of my favorite parts about this novel is the narrative voice (i.e. Enrigue’s voice), which shines throughout, as it achieves a matchless balance of historicity and contemporaneity. Stated more plainly: Enrigue does this thing where he writes about history using today's diction, often employing riveting anachronisms—anachronisms that reminded me a lot of reading of César Aira’s An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter.

In this vein, I find that Enrigue has an unrivaled ability to represent historical figures in fiction; in my view, he brings Moctezuma, Cortés, etc. to life on the printed page in a way that simply no other writer working today can. Furthermore, Enrigue’s representation of Tenochtitlán and Tlatelolco in 1519 is electric, as at no point in the text did I ever have a tough time imagining the scene (frankly, Enrigue's capacity for representing with real specificity the architecture of Tenochtitlán is beyond impressive). As I see it, Enrigue paints pictures in the medium of language with a level of detail that is exhaustive but never exhausting and practically transports his readers through space and time.

One of my favorite chapters is the very first, as I could smell and taste the words coming off the page, and the visuals I was getting nearly felt psilocybin-induced. Accordingly, from my POV, the effect Enrigue achieves is to demonstrate the surreality of history, and in particular, how utterly surreal it must have been for the conquistadors and the “Aztecs” (see the “Note to English-Language Readers for an explanation of why this signifier is polemical) to come face to face with one another. With that in mind, if you like surrealist novels and have any interest in psychedelics whatsoever, you should probably read You Dreamed of Empires straight away! I'm quite sure you’ll enjoy the trip!

Nevertheless, while I do believe You Dreamed of Empires to be an incredibly enjoyable read, I will admit that it can be rather challenging too; however, I find that quality, in turn, makes the novel all the more rewarding in the end (I had to put forth a bit more effort than usual, but a large part of that has to do with poor timing, as I elected to start this novel at an inopportune moment). For instance, at times, I struggled to keep track of some of the characters and had to go back to the front-matter lists to clear up my confusion; I also had to look up some of the Nahuatl-rooted words on occasion, though as the narrative went on, I definitely got more comfortable in this respect, as Enrigue tends to teach as he narrates. Moreover, I found it somewhat demanding to stay on top of all the politics at play in the Aztec Empire, though the intricacies of Tenochtitlán society are represented with such nuance and care that it’s almost impossible not to find all the political subterfuge absolutely captivating.

Ultimately, with You Dreamed of Empires, Enrigue prods his readers into seeing the history of the conquest and colonization of the Americas in a new light, one which is not dominated by the false illuminations—the illusions and delusions—of Eurocentrism. Nonetheless, at the same time, Enrigue does not glorify Moctezuma and his empire, nor fall into the trap of primitivism; instead, he represents the Aztecs in all their humanity, and to entirely fascinating ends to boot!

Have you read any of Enrigue's books? If so, please drop your thoughts in the comments!

For those of you who have read Sudden Death and/or Hypothermia, what did you think?

If anyone here has read any of Enrigue's works that have yet to be translated into English, what do you make of his earlier output?

As always, thanks for reading... Peace!

I know there are some here in r/latamlit who have had less than ideal experiences (to put it politely) with Deep Vellum, but in any case, I wanted to post this deal announcement to the community, as Alberto Laiseca’s Los Sorias, has come up on a couple of occasions as of late.

In fact, you can read u/sarajevo_marlboro’s recent review here: Los Sorias - Review

Anyway, feel free to vent in the comments if you're miffed, but also, please try to be nice (to the extent possible)!

Peace :)

hellooooo im (20f) fluent in spanish but i tend to read in english since i went to school in the states, i really want to improve my spanish grammatically through reading more, what are some great books that were originally written in spanish?

i really love reading female main characters and i enjoy dark/tense litfic

two of my favorite books of all time are sharp objects by jillian flynn and white oleander by janet fitch

This author has been a part of my life for several decades and I'd really enjoy chatting with others who may have experienced incredible moments in life through his work.

My heart is glowing with a golden warmth.

I just finished the Witch of Portobello.

r/latamlit is seeking to bring 2-3 new Moderators onto the MOD team. If you are interested, please apply by completing the attached Google Form (the form is anonymous and your email address will not be collected). The application will remain open until 12:00 PM EST on July 31, 2026.

r/latamlit is looking for 2-3 new Moderators who would be willing to assist with the shared duties of approving and/or removing posts in the MOD Queue, approving and/or removing comments as needed, creating relevant and engaging content on a semi-regular basis, maintaining the weekly "General Discussion" thread, maintaining the monthly "New Releases" thread, responding to MOD Mail, etc.

If you are passionate and (generally) knowledgeable about Latin American literature (broadly conceived) and are interested in becoming a MOD of r/latamlit, please do not hesitate to apply.

If you have any questions, or if any issues come up with completing the application, please reach out to me via Chat, and I will respond as soon as I am able. Thank you!

love the rich emotive inner life of the characters mixed with the wider political landscape of postwar Italy, even more so focus on women,. I would love to know any other suggestions from other European countries, fiction, or nonfiction. - (for example, loved Annie Ernaux).

I love also Allende books and historical realism - so anything similar (both Latin american also be great!)

Bonus if not as series: Neapolitan quartet is long!

i know I'm late to the party no idea how i missed this series its awesome!

As a big fan of Pynchon. I've read his every work. Is there any latin american work which is kind of like Pynchon works which synthesises Science, Vast historical symbolism etc etc. Or any work similar to William Gaddis

He's a strange and beautiful writer. Someone spanish speaking please translate his testamento geometrico. I own that too, but in spanish only. It's hanging in my living room.

looking at my old McSweeny’s issues (this one is from 2014) and came across this gem. In it we have stories from Mariana Enriquez, Alejandro Zambra, and Rodrigo Rey Rosa. The first story is by Santiago Roncagliolo (Peru) translated by the great Bolaño translater Natasha Wimmer.

I just finished reading Sara Barquinero’s latest novel, La chica más lista que conozco. Now I’ve read all four of her novels. I think this one is maybe her best. Has anyone else read her? She hasn’t been translated to English yet, but I know she’ll totally pop off once she does.

How do you feel about campus novels? Künstlerromans? What does #MeToo mean in 2026, now that it seems like we’ve entered a revanchist era of the right, in politics & culture & academia? Should Spain win the Mundial??

Anyhow here’s my review (in which I mirrored the novel’s form):

\*

HYPOTHESIS:

It seems like Barquinero is always writing a variation of the same character. This is not, in itself, a bad thing.

DEMONSTRATION:

§1: —Emma in Terminal, the unnamed narrator of Estaré sola y sin fiesta, Sara in Los escorpiones— and here with La chica más lista que conozco, we have maybe her most realized version of this woman yet with our protagonist Alicia. Barquinero is concerned with women who we should not say are too smart for their own good, because that would be as condescending as it is wrong, but we might say that they are much too self-conscious for their own well-being. Barquinero is well aware of the Wallacian dictum that "you will become way less concered with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do"— and knows that this is much easier to intellectualize than it is to actually live your life accordingly.

Alicia, the young university student from provincial Valladolid, is therefore relatable as hell: she feels smarter than her classmates but lives in constant fear of their judgement, judges their lives while getting into fracaso after fracaso of her own (often with the very same men as her friends . . . ), and constantly faults them for dropping out of contact with her even when she does the same to them whenever she enters a particularly self-involved period. But these flaws don't make her unlikable, they humanize her. Especially because these seem quaint in light of the abuses of power she sees, experiences, and attempts to confront at the university.

§2: How does one live by their principles within today's neoliberalized academic institutions? How does one navigate the precarity of an academic life when standing up for your classmates when the TAs are talking about them like pieces of meat might jeopardize your funding and position within the department? What do you do when the professor who kept you at arms length in a semester-long situationship admits he's been fucking other women the whole time, leaves you, and then steals your work for his next book?*

§3: La chica más lista que conozco is a treatise that grapples with these questions. Without spoiling the ending, I believe that Alicia, far from solving these problems (which would be so far from realistic as to be farsical), at least finds her own path forward. And so, it seems, has Sara Barquinero, who has cemented her place as probably the most interesting, talented, and thought-provoking millennial author.   

\OBSERVATION I: For how many young women have been told «Debe ser la chica más lista que conozco» by an older man, one in some position of power (cultural, economic, academic) over her? A classic tactic of manipulation, "You're not like other girls", but it's exactly what Alicia craves to hear, even if she knows he's probably told it to hundreds of other young women . . .* 

Has anyone read The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa. I read the context of that book and I found that pretty interesting. Can anyone tell how is the book and it's language composition. And how it differs from Mythpoetic Giants like Terra Nostra and 100 years of Solitude .

Hello everyone!

I am working towards a project in comparative literature studies and I need some help with Spanish Latin American novels/works. I'm looking for anything that has to do with farms/agriculture (fiction) or the struggle against nature. I am only surface-level familiar with Latin American literature and Google has not been very helpful recently so I am struggling to find what I am looking for (as broad as that is). I can read Spanish so it does not need to be available in English.

Thank you in advance!

You probably haven't noticed, but the reason I've been less active in our community as of late is that I was on a road trip to/in the Rust Belt where I originally hail from. In between visiting with friends and family, I made some time to check out some of my former-favorite used-book hunting grounds in and around my podunk hometown. Here are the four works of Latin American literature that I scored in my extended hunt:

Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte by Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay)

• To be honest, I have never read any Quiroga, but I am excited to check out some of these stories (if not the entire collection) soon, as I plan to visit Montevideo this fall and really have yet to read much literature from Uruguay. I'm glad to have found this title (from Penguin Español), as I've been meaning to make myself put an end to my laziness when it comes to reading in Spanish, and it appears that Quiroga's work is rather hard to find in English. Can anyone here speak to Quiroga?

La trama celeste by Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina)

• I read The Invention of Morel this past winter and really enjoyed it. I also have the nyrb classics-series edition of Asleep in the Sun but have not yet given it a go. This is a collection of stories that was ostensibly translated into English and included in the 1964 University of Texas Press edition of The Invention of Morel, however, that publication is most definitely out of print. The version I have here is from Editorial Losada from Buenos Aires; frankly, I can't believe I happened upon this particular title in a secondhand bookstore out in the sticks of the Upper Midwest! I'm going to take that as a sign from the universe that I should read this book sooner rather than later! ¿Hay alguien aquí que haya leído esta colección de cuentos?

The End by Fernanda Torres (Brasil)

• Torres is most renown for her work as an actress, especially after her Oscar-nominated performance in Walter Salles' 2024 film I'm Still Here (Ainda estou aqui). Candidly, I actually had no idea she had written a novel when I saw I'm Still Here last year (it's an incredibly moving film that I would highly recommend for those who are interested in the military dictatorship in Brazil; it's different than Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, which I prefer, but still great!). The End was translated by Alison Entrekin and it is Torres' first novel (2013); to date she has published one other novel, Glory and Its Litany of Honors (2017). I picked up this title for $1 at my mom's favorite local thrift shop; it's published by Restless Books out of Amherst, MA. Has anyone here read Torres before?

The Ill-Fated Peregrinations of Fray Servando by Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba)

• Cuban literature is another major gap in my knowledge of Latin American literature, and Arenas is a writer who has been on my radar for years, though I never gave his work the time of day (for no good reason). In 2001, Penguin reprinted this book in English as Hallucinations: Or, the Ill-Fated Peregrinations of Fray Servando; I have the 1994 edition here, which is also translated by Andrew Hurley. This novel is apparently in the tradition of Don Quixote, Pantagruel, and Candide, which if true, means I am bound to absolutely love it, as I have had a longstanding fascination with literature of the grotesque/carnivalesque (shoutout Bakhtin). Has anyone here read this particular title from Arenas? What about his autobiography, Before Night Falls?

Tell us: Have you scored any secondhand Latin American titles out in the wild recently?!?!

Peace!

Someone in my book club asked this question, and I didn’t have a good answer (other than recommending some novels themselves), so I thought I’d pass it along here to get some help — Can anyone recommend some good books explaining the content, figures, and features of the Latin American novel?

We'd love to hear about what you've been reading, authors you're interested in, and really anything related to LATAM Literature!

So technically this is not Latin American lit, as its peninsular Spanish literature, but I’m hoping you’ll all allow us to temporarily broaden our horizons to include todo el mundo hispanohablante 🤞

Has anyone read anything by Sara Barquinero? Since I first read her debut novella TERMINAL last year, I’ve become completely obsessed. I went and read her other two novels, ESTARÉ SOLA Y SIN FIESTA and LOS ESCORPIONES, immediately after. It blows my mind that she has yet to be translated in English! She’s very much a millennial writer, and as someone of the generation that got online as a young adult, she shares many of the same cultural reference points and neuroses with yanqui readers such as myself.

So I decided to not only reread TERMINAL, but to give a shot at translating it into English. This short novella, only 70 pages in the original and a little over 50 in English, is deceptively simple. Two people strike up a conversation in an airport while waiting for their flights. Meanwhile, a young Ukrainian boy, in Spain with a nonprofit, contemplates whether or not to commit a minor crime.

My ask here is this: would anyone be interested in being a beta reader for my translation? I would prefer if you are bilingual, but even if not just reading it and giving feedback on the smoothness and feel of the translation would be helpful. This is a wonderful little community and I’m hoping it can be a place to encourage people to try to bring more Spanish-language lit into English, even if only for fun (or, in my case, so my girlfriend can read one of my favorite novellas)!

Let me know if you’re interested in the comments. Vale, gracias a todos 🫡

Recientemente adquiri la obra de Samanta Schweblin (quizas mas por repercusion o fama que por recomendaciones directas) "El buen mal". Me gustaria que quienes hayan leido sus obras me comenten claves para poder adentrarse en ella, si les parece que su repercusion es acorde a su obra o simplemente que les parecio!

Hi, do you know any Latin American (or Spanish) writers of short stories that are in the public domain ? (So died 70+ ago, but no earlier than 19th century)
Preferably women writing anything speculative/ horror
Like Juana Manuela Gorriti for example

Thanks!