A Sunny Place for Shady People

by Mariana Enriquez

Horror

Short Stories

Literary Fiction

257 Pages

"Enriquez's prose is hypnotic and terrifying—these stories stayed with me long after I closed the book."

Synopsis

Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez, hailed as "one of Latin America's most exciting authors" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. In twelve spellbinding stories, Enriquez explores the lives of ordinary people—especially women—whose everyday existence turns inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal, and the supernatural. A neighborhood plagued by persistent ghosts. A family whose faces mysteriously melt away. A faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the rooftop water tank. A riverbank where all the birds were once women. These and other dark tales illuminate the shadows lurking beneath contemporary life, in a world where the boundaries between good and evil have ceased to exist. Translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, A Sunny Place for Shady People showcases Enriquez's singular ability to merge literary fiction with horror, crafting stories that are lyrical and hypnotic, heart-stopping and deeply moving. Her work has captivated readers worldwide, earning praise from Kazuo Ishiguro, who calls her "the most exciting discovery I've made in fiction for some time." These stories never fail to enthrall, entertain, and leave readers profoundly shaken.

Our Take

Mariana Enriquez has emerged as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary horror, and A Sunny Place for Shady People confirms her status as a master of the unsettling. These twelve stories don't rely on cheap scares or gore—instead, Enriquez weaves dread into the fabric of everyday life, creating an atmosphere where the supernatural feels inevitable rather than shocking. Her Argentina is a place where ghosts are as common as neighbors, where transformation and dissolution happen without explanation, and where women bear the weight of both mundane and metaphysical terrors. What sets Enriquez apart is her ability to ground the fantastical in achingly real human emotion. Her characters struggle with grief, isolation, desire, and rage, making their encounters with the macabre feel like natural extensions of psychological states. Megan McDowell's translation captures the lyrical beauty and visceral horror of Enriquez's prose with stunning precision. Readers who love Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado or the haunting fiction of Shirley Jackson will find a kindred spirit here. For fans of literary horror that lingers in your mind like a half-remembered nightmare, A Sunny Place for Shady People is essential, unforgettable reading.