Things We Lost in the Fire

For readers who want their horror grounded in the real world, Mariana Enriquez’s story collection is an extraordinary entry point. Set in contemporary Argentina, these twelve stories use supernatural elements to illuminate the very real horrors of poverty, political violence, and social inequality.

Why Start Here

Enriquez is often described as the most important voice in Latin American horror, and this collection shows why. Her ghosts are not metaphors for personal trauma. They are the literal dead, the disappeared, the victims of state violence and economic collapse who refuse to stay buried. A slum built on a former cemetery produces children who see things. A woman becomes obsessed with a homeless boy covered in sores. A group of women begin setting themselves on fire as a form of protest.

What makes these stories so effective is how seamlessly Enriquez blends the mundane and the monstrous. Her Buenos Aires is recognizable, filled with bus rides, apartment blocks, and neighborhood gossip, and the horror emerges from that familiarity rather than disrupting it. The supernatural is not an escape from reality. It is reality pushed to its breaking point.

What to Expect

Twelve stories, each between ten and thirty pages, written in spare, direct prose. The horror is often visceral, but Enriquez never relies on shock alone. There is always a social or political dimension that gives the scares their weight. Readers who enjoy writers like Roberto Bolano or Samanta Schweblin will find familiar territory here, though Enriquez is more openly genre-committed than either. At 224 pages, the collection is a quick but intense read.