Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021. Mariana Enríquez populates contemporary urban Argentina with a macabre cast of crooked witches, unruly teenagers, homeless ghosts and hungry women. Translated by Megan McDowell.

As terrifying as they are socially conscious, the stories press into the unspoken - fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history - with bracing urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can’t let go of their idol; an entire neighbourhood is cursed to death when it fails to respond correctly to a moral dilemma.

Shortlisted
The 2021 International Booker Prize
Published by
Granta Books
Publication date
Mariana Enríquez

Mariana Enríquez

About the Author

Mariana Enríquez was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize. She is a novelist, journalist and short story writer from Argentina.
More about Mariana Enríquez
Megan McDowell

Megan McDowell

About the Translator

Megan McDowell has translated books by many contemporary South American and Spanish authors, including Samanta Schweblin, Alejandro Zambra and Mariana Enriquez.
More about Megan McDowell

Lucy Phelps reads from The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

 

Lucy Phelps reads from The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, written by Mariana Enriquez,  translated by Megan McDowell and shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.

This video was created for Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed by Blanche McIntyre.

The Dangers Of Smoking In Bed

Other nominated books by Megan McDowell

Little Eyes
Mouthful of Birds
Fever Dream