A review by baielleebooks
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez

challenging dark informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

Haunting and incisive, Mariana Enriquez refracts Argentina's legacies of dictatorships and militaristic brutality into twelve brilliant short stories that truly stab you in the gut. They do so in their ability to rouse emotion and confront social issues otherwise shoved to the peripheries of nostaglic or superfically rose-tinted national histories.

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What I personally found so deeply original were her framings of youth, as we witness the constructed purity of childhood shattered in sharp anti-social turns against the backdrop of political instability in stories such as The Intoxicated Years and The Neighbour's Courtyard.

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My favourites, in addition to the two aforementioned, included Adela's House, a story that set the standard for how Enriquez' stories lacerate and truly leave their mark.