A Sunny Place for Shady People

Stories

By: Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell - translator

Narrated by: Lee Osorio, Annette Amelia Oliveira, Sol Madariaga, Maria Liatis

WORLD FANTASY AWARD WINNER!

BRAM STOKER AWARD FINALIST • A diabolical collection of stories featuring achingly human characters whose lives intertwine with ghosts, goblins, and the macabre, by “Buenos Aires’s sorceress of horror” (Samanta Schweblin, The New York Times)

“Entertaining, political and exquisitely gruesome, these stories summon terror against the backdrop of everyday horrors. . . . A queen of horror delivers more delightfully twisted stories.”—Los Angeles Times

“As vivid and essential as Kafka’s tales.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • IGNYTE AWARD FINALIST • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, THE TELEGRAPH, ELECTRIC LIT, PASTE, LATINA MEDIA

On the shores of this river, all the birds that fly, drink, perch on branches, and disturb siestas with the demonic squawking of the possessed—all those birds were once women.

Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez. In twelve spellbinding new stories, Enriquez writes about ordinary people, especially women, whose lives turn inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal, and the supernatural. A neighborhood nuisanced by ghosts, a family whose faces melt away, a faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the water tank on the roof, a riverbank populated by birds that used to be women—these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.

Lyrical and hypnotic, heart-stopping and deeply moving, Enriquez’s stories never fail to enthrall, entertain, and leave us shaken. Translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, A Sunny Place for Shady People showcases Enriquez’s unique blend of the literary and the horrific, and underscores why Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, calls her “the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.”

It’s…fine

Downloaded this because I loved the characters, lore, and world building of “Our Share of Night”. Compared to that, this felt more like a thought exercise. A number of short stories - some haunting but most falling slightly short for me. Her short story Face of Disgrace was excellent.

Unexpected thoughtfulness

scary, weird, sometimes beautiful. Many different layers to these short stories. I thoroughly lost myself.

Really effective collection!

Just finished this! It’s not my favorite from Mariana Enriquez—that’s most definitely the near-perfect THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE—but this has some really great stories in it. I was especially impressed with the body horror of “Face of Disgrace” and the terrific atmosphere in “A Local Artist.” Definitely recommend.

Poor all around & Refunded

The first story was interesting but the rest of the stories are not good. The voice actors are not good either and their cadence is sooo off making bad writing even more insufferable. Had to refund bc it felt like I was burning money.

wonderful voicing to unfullfilling and anticlimactic storylines.

i red the preface to this book in the English fiction section at a bookstore in Hong Kong and was intrigued, so I spent my last token on the audiobook to listen to on the flight home. I suppose the good news was that I was tired and falling asleep to this audio book means missing nothing as the storylines brought zero resolutions and were left unfinished. In a world where life can feel that way anyways, while relatable, in a fictional read being left with uneasy hunger at the end of a story is not only anticlimactic, it's frustrating.
No, not my favorite read.