In Conversation with Mariana Enriquez

In collaboration with SLLL (School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at ANU), the Spanish Studies Program and AILASA (the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia) – International Booker Prize shortlisted author Mariana Enriquez will be in conversation with Dr. Fabricio Tocco on her latest collection of short stories A Sunny Place for Shady People and will be discussing her extensive body of work.

Nobel Prize for Literature winner Kazuo Ishiguro recently hailed the Argentinian writer Mariana Enriquez as “the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time”. Join us and find out why!

About the Books

A Sunny Place for Shady People - 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.

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.”

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed - The stories in her new collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken—fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history—with bracing urgency. Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with a resounding tenderness toward those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is Mariana Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.

Our Share of Night - A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality. “An enchanting, shattering, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

Things We Lost in the Fire - Electric, disturbing, and exhilarating, the stories of Things We Lost in the Fire explore multiple dimensions of life and death in contemporary Argentina. Each haunting tale simmers with the nation’s troubled history, but among the abandoned houses, black magic, superstitions, lost loves and regrets, there is also friendship, compassion, and humour. These “slim but phenomenal” (Vanity Fair) stories ask the biggest questions of life and show why Mariana Enriquez has become one of the most celebrated new voices in global literature.

About Mariana Enriquez

Mariana Enriquez is an award-winning novelist and short story writer from Argentina. Her works have been translated into over 20 languages. Known for her gothic and macabre stories, interspersed with incisive social critique, Enriquez’s style is often likened to Stephen King or Margaret Atwood. Her short story collection The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (2021, Hogarth, translated by Megan McDowell) was short listed for the international Booker Prize, and her novel Our Share of the Night (2019, Hogarth, translated by Megan McDowell) won the Herralde Prize in 2019, one of the most prestigious literary awards of the Spanish-speaking world.

About Dr. Fabricio Tocco

Dr. Fabricio Tocco is an Argentine-Brazilian writer, musician, and lecturer at the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, at the ANU. He is the author of the novel Parece diciembre (2025, Equidistancias) and two academic books, Latin American Detectives against Power (Lexington, ICFA Book Prize 2022) and Precarious Secrets (2025, University of Texas Press), which inspired the documentary Secretos Precarios (SBS on Demand, 2025). He has released three albums, including Las aventuras perdidas (Club del Disco, 2022), a musical adaptation of the book of the same name by Alejandra Pizarnik.

About the Event

• Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

• Registration is required for this event.

• Accessible parking spaces directly below the Harry Hartog ANU Bookshop are available should you require them. Kambri ANU / Parking

• If you do not feel well, please refrain from attending this event.

• Disability Access available - please ask in-store.