Herrera Land

One day reading through Facebook I found an intriguing link from Grace Emmual. It was of a Latin American canon of literature. It was organized with “if you like _____ try _____” As in,

If you have to read: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Try: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Remezla’s Website

Or

If you have to read: Beowulf
Try: Popol Vuh

Remezla’s Website

Or, the one that got me,

If you have to read: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Try: Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera

Remezla’s Website

There are more, many more, check them out at Remezla’s Website. I will certainly be back for more to read.

Their book Signs Preceding the End of the World begins with a woman walkig down the street.

I’m dead, Makina said to herself when everything lurched: a man with a cane was crossing the street, a dull groan suddenly surged through the asphalt, the man stood still as if waiting for someone to repeat the question and then the earth opened up beneath his feet: it swallowed the man, and with him a car and a dog, all the oxygen around and even the screams of passers-by.

Opening sentence of Signs Preceding the End of the World

Could you stop reading there? I couldn’t. So I continued.

Three cheers for Lisa Dillman! She is the translator of the work and several others. Translators have a difficult craft to practice. Ms. Dillman does so well.

It seems Patti Smith is also a fan of this book and other by Yuri Herrera. She is in “Herrera Land” (where I stole the headline) where you can find Kingdom Cons. Which is, fortunatly, avaailble at my local library.

I’m off to finish this book and hope the hold list for Kingdom Cons is not too long a wait.