Mariana Enríquez

Twelve stories of ghosts, demons and wild women: of sharp-toothed children and stolen skulls. In this sleep-stealing collection, Enríquez transports the reader to the crime-ridden street of post-dictatorship Buenos Aires, where exhausted fathers conjure up child-killers, and young women, tired of suffering in silence, decide there's nothing left to do but set themselves on fire.

Things We Lost in the Fire

Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego

Mika

“If they go on like this, men are going to have to get used to us. Soon most women are going to look like me, if they don’t die. And wouldn’t that be nice? A new kind of beauty.”

Aimee :)

"Babe, death is the only problem without a solution.“

Maybe I wasn't the princess in her castle; maybe I was a madwoman locked in her tower.

. some stories weren’t the best, but that’s a given considering how strong the entire collection is. every story is better than the last, with the last few ones taking the cake. the last story, the anthology’s namesake, ties everything together and is the strongest of all. definitely worth a re-read and a few nights of wikipedia rabbitholes. if there’s anything to describe this book, it’s just it’s very 

 — from the subject material, the imagery, the writing, the horror

just fucking beautiful. some stories weren’t the best, but that’s a given considering how strong the entire collection is. every story is better than the last, with the last few ones taking the cake. the last story, the anthology’s namesake, ties everything together and is the strongest of all. definitely worth a re-read and a few nights of wikipedia rabbitholes. if there’s anything to describe this book, it’s just it’s very strong — from the subject material, the imagery, the writing, the horror — so good.

Ghofran Mustafa 

disturbing!!
If you like horror & creepy things, you'll like this one.

In these wildly imaginative, devilishly daring tales of the macabre, internationally bestselling author Mariana Enriquez brings contemporary Argentina to vibrant life as a place where shocking inequality, violence, and corruption are the law of the land, while military dictatorship and legions of desaparecidos loom large in the collective memory. In these stories, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Julio Cortázar, three young friends distract themselves with drugs and pain in the midst a government-enforced blackout; a girl with nothing to lose steps into an abandoned house and never comes back out; to protest a viral form of domestic violence, a group of women set themselves on fire. But alongside the black magic and disturbing disappearances, these stories are fueled by compassion for the frightened and the lost, ultimately bringing these characters—mothers and daughters, husbands and wives—into a surprisingly familiar reality. Written in hypnotic prose that gives grace to the grotesque, Things We Lost in the Fire is a powerful exploration of what happens when our darkest desires are left to roam unchecked, and signals the arrival of an astonishing and necessary voice in contemporary fiction.

Stories

Gelaine Trinidad

An engrossing collection of gothic horror stories. I preferred this one to The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. A general trend with Enríquez for me is that her stories tend to end too soon to really stick with me, but I'm excited to read her long-form fiction.

Olga V

A. D. Knapp

I won this ARC from Goodreads Giveaways.

I must admit my ignorance when it comes to Argentina and it's culture. I've never been there, nor met anyone from there. Most of my knowledge about the country comes from travelogue shows on the Travel Channel or whenever Anthony Bourdain would set up shop there for an episode of one of his shows. One of the things that struck me about Things We Lost in the Fire was how little my ignorance mattered. Mariana Enríquez has that wonderful gift good short story writers have of giving you everything you need to know about the characters and the setting in a line or two. Even in the shortest of the stories collected here, I always felt entirely grounded. You need that sort of grounding in a reality for the stories with more supernatural elements to completely work. Those elements work very well here.

Populated by damaged characters reminiscent of the best of Gillian Flynn's damaged female protagonists and the gritty details of their lives and surroundings, I found each of these stories compelling and entirely satisfying. Seeing the world through the eyes of a culture alien to me only adds to the effect. There are many truths to be found here. Five stars. Recommended.

Thrilling and terrifying, Things We Lost in the Fire takes the reader into a world of Argentine Gothic. A world of sharp-toothed children and young girls racked by desire, where demons lurk beneath the river and stolen skulls litter the pavements. A world where the secrets half-buried under Argentina's terrible dictatorship rise up to haunt the present day, and where women, exhausted by a plague of violence, find that their only path out lies in the flames...

So cool! I haven’t really touched short stores yet and this was quite the collection to get started. A) this is a Megan McDowell translation which answers some questions I had about Fever Dream (but not all of them!) B) these were plain great and spooky, something I did not research before going in and got the heebie jeebies immediately. Lives up to the hype, probably deserves more hype, I’m an instant fan.

Eli Alvah Huckabee

Molly M

Lindy

I like Mariana Enríquez's style and am looking forward to reading more of her fiction. She persistently makes the classic mistake of choosing to end the stories just as things start to get interesting, though, so I'd like to see what she could do with something novella length. 

My favorite stories in this volume are "The Intoxicated Years," "Spiderweb," and "Things We Lost in the Fire."

azliana aziz

fucking rad.

incisive social commentary imagined with some of the darkest realism.

that closing story also the titular of the book was a big fuck you to haruki murakami's barn burning. i'm gonna worship this collection of stories everyday.

Cody Degen

Some of the stories ended quite abruptly it caught me off guard but for the ones that didn't I enjoyed them very much.

Mazzie

luca

Uma coletânea de contos macabros, atmosféricos e muito bem escritos! Meus favoritos foram 'Os anos intoxicados', 'Fim de curso', 'Nada de carne sob nós' e 'O quintal do vizinho'.

El mundo de Mariana Enriquez no tiene por qué ser el nuestro, y, sin embargo, lo termina siendo. Bastan pocas frases para pisarlo, respirarlo y no olvidarlo gracias a una viveza emocional insólita. Con la cotidianidad hecha pesadilla, el lector se despierta abatido, perturbado por historias e imágenes que jamás conseguirá sacarse de la cabeza. Las autodenominadas «mujeres ardientes», que protestan contra una forma extrema de violencia doméstica que se ha vuelto viral; una estudiante que se arranca las uñas y las pestañas, y otra que intenta ayudarla; los años de apagones dictados por el gobierno durante los cuales se intoxican tres amigas que lo serán hasta que la muerte las separe; el famoso asesino en serie llamado Petiso Orejudo, que sólo tenía nueve años; hikikomori, magia negra, los celos, el desamor, supersticiones rurales, edificios abandonados o encantados... En estos once cuentos el lector se ve obligado a olvidarse de sí mismo para seguir las peripecias e investigaciones de cuerpos que desaparecen o bien reaparecen en el momento menos esperado. Ya sea una trabajadora social, una policía o un guía turístico, los protagonistas luchan por apadrinar a seres socialmente invisibles, indagando así en el peso de la culpa, la compasión, la crueldad, las dificultades de la convivencia, y en un terror tan hondo como verosímil. Mariana Enriquez es una de las narradoras más valientes y sorprendentes del siglo XXI, no sólo de la nueva literatura argentina a cargo de escritores nacidos durante la dictadura sino de la literatura de cualquier país o lengua. Mariana Enriquez transforma géneros literarios en recursos narrativos, desde la novela negra hasta el realismo sucio, pasando por el terror, la crónica y el humor, y ahonda con dolor y belleza en las raíces, las llamas y las tinieblas de toda existencia.

Maga P

Sin palabras, la verdad. Es la primera vez que leo algo de Mariana Enríquez y quedé con ganas de más. Me encanta cuán distintivas y marcadas son las voces de sus protagonistas, lo cotidiano del horror y el ritmo de la prosa.

Women who set themselves on fire to protest against domestic violence, distressed teenagers, friends till death do them apart, street children, young women bored with their partners, black magic, and superstition in northern Argentina. A work that is classic and contemporary at once.

Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego/ Things We Lost in The Fire

Cristian Garcia

Había escuchado de Mariana Enríquez en algún podcast y de inmediato anoté su nombre. Desafortunadamente no pillé el libro en español y leí la traducción al inglés, sin embargo su pluma es tremenda en cualquier lengua.
Entiendo que la autora vivió la dictadura en Argentina y eso se refleja en sus relatos que mezclan lo cotidiano con el horror paranormal; niños deformes, mujeres que se queman y maridos inútiles dan cuenta de una Argentina fantástica, donde el terror ataca a las mujeres de manera silenciosa y horrible.
"Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego" me encantó, es oscuro, es brutal y está tremendamente bien escrito.

aisha

each story is stamped with its own brand of horror, some standing out more than others. truly a bone-chilling experience.

Arturo Hernández

Serie de cuentos cortos entretenidos. Un par de textos me dejaron con ganas de conocer más de la historia; sin embargo la mayoría eran simplemente buenos relatos.

algunos cuentos me parecieron geniales y otros, muy aburridos.

benja

Hellboy TCR

A sua escrita tem sido comparada à de um Poe do século XXI, à de Roberto Bolaño e à de Cortázar. Com estes partilha temas e, sobretudo, universos inquietantes, sombrios, em que o leitor perde rapidamente o pé e é arrastado para regiões malévolas, incontroláveis (da mente humana, do dia-a-dia) que o vão assombrar, insidiosamente, durante muito tempo. Certo é que Mariana Enríquez, que prepara já o seu próximo romance, cruza magistralmente a grande tradição latino-americana com uma voz muito própria, a sua: e que é feroz, visceral, feminista, política e humorística.

As coisas que perdemos no fogo

Nelson Zagalo

Gostei de conhecer a Mariana Enríquez. Julgo que aquilo que mais me atraiu na sua escrita foi a geografia de origem. Ou seja, estas histórias escritas por uma escritora norte-americana não me teriam feito sequer aproximar.
Acabei por entrar nos universos criados, e adorar a forma como nos envolve, como nos seduz e leva a acreditar estar lá, com ela. O fundo de Argentina e Buenos Aires serve de teia para nos agarrar, mas não é só, é mesmo a forma como escreve, descreve e nos enreda. Muito bom.

Contudo, parei pouco depois do meio do livro. São apenas contos. Começam bem, desenvolvem o nosso interesse, e quando se perspectiva para onde podem ir, terminam. Por isso, fui ler o seu romance, com críticas ainda mais elogiosas. Mas desisti ao fim de poucas páginas, quando percebi que a fantasia iria ocupar espaço demais na trama. Médiuns com poderes de enviar pensamentos...

Mas o estilo de Enriquez é muito bom, por isso se não tiverem problemas com a fantasia e algum horror, vão adorar. Do meu lado, acredito que a voltarei a ler, só espero que seja algo mais realista.

Ashlyn

4 stars for the content, but only 3 stars for the translation

Sunny Under Blue Skies

"Pero no estaba soñando. En los sueños no se siente dolor."

Macabro, perturbador e emocionante, As coisas que perdemos no fogo reúne contos que usam o medo e o terror para explorar várias dimensões da vida contemporânea. Em um primeiro olhar, as doze narrativas do livro parecem surreais. No entanto, depois de poucas frases, elas se mostram estranhamente familiares: é o cotidiano transformado em pesadelo. Personagens e lugares aparentemente comuns ocultam um universo insólito: um menino assassino, uma garota que arranca as unhas e os cílios na sala de aula, adolescentes que fazem pactos sombrios, amigos que parecem destinados à morte, mulheres que ateiam fogo em si mesmas como forma de protesto, casas abandonadas, magia negra, mitos e superstições. Uma das escritoras mais corajosas e surpreendentes do século XXI, Mariana Enriquez dá voz à geração nascida durante a ditadura militar na Argentina. Neste livro, ela cria um universo povoado por pessoas comuns e seres socialmente invisíveis, cujas existências sucumbem ao peso da culpa, da compaixão, da crueldade e da simples convivência. O resultado é uma obra ao mesmo tempo estranha e familiar, que questiona de forma penetrante e indelével o mundo em que vivemos.

spepp

8.5
Emprestado por Thalita Bastos.

Favoritos:

O menino sujo
A casa de Adela
Pablito clavó un clavito
As coisas que perdemos no fogo

Incredible. The Argentine Shirley Jackson. The atmosphere Enriquez creates in each story is stunning and entrancing.

Athena Eloy

From feline drug addicts converting to Satanist cults, to haunted houses and serial murderers, Mariana Enríquez's collection of short stories is as thrilling as it is anxiety inducing, the key thread that masterfully binds these varied stories together. While not all stories are explicitly horrific, they all manage to keep the reader expecting, at any moment, to find themselves confronted with the terrifying implied potential. If you're looking for a collection of stories to keep you up at night, look out for the release of Enríquez's "Things We Lost in the Fire", 21 Feb 2017.

Things We Lost in the Fire

Reviews

Highlights