Overview

'Stunning... An energetic and harrowing new voice.' Miriam Toews, author of All My Puny Sorrows A young man jumps five floors to his death. His sister tries to understand why. A searing novel about abandonment, belonging and migration, from an exciting new Latin American voice. Five floors, six seconds, a body crashing to the ground. When our narrator's younger brother, Diego, takes his own life, she retreats into memories of the past, asking herself again and again: why? Revisiting their early years in Mexico, their childhood in Spain and the fragmentation and displacement that coloured their adult years, she pieces together a story of alienation and loss, but also of belonging, courage and hope.  Now, she has to return to Mexico with Diego's ashes in hand. She finds a country that looks very different from the one she left behind and asks what it means to return to a home that never felt like one. Eating Ashes is a tender, deeply poignant novel, shot through with flashes of dark humour, from a powerful new Latin American voice.

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9781836430193

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Reviews

'Stunning...an energetic and harrowing new voice.' Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking 'One of the best-kept secrets of Mexican literature.' Fernanda Melchor, author of International Booker-Prize shortlisted Hurricane Season 'A sensitive portrayal of sibling love, grief, and the trauma of dislocation.' Kirkus (starred review) 'Furious and feline... The first real masterpiece in our language in 2022.' El Mundo 'A devastating story... Completely addictive.' Esquire 'A writer who pulls us along with the irreparable violence of her writing in order to make us understand that everyone is free (or should be) to choose their own redemption. And nothing can be more fair and admirable in this life that is neither fair nor admirable.' Los Libreros Recomiendan 'Brenda Navarro writes masterfully and there is lots of work behind her two novels, but the best part about them is the identity of her characters, who feel complete and real to readers despite their emotional devastation. Social realism with the strength of fiction as a turbo-empathizer. An incredible novel.' La buena vida 'Raw, ingenious and addictive.' El País 'An author who knows that behind all affection lies hidden danger.' Yuri Herrera, author of Signs Preceding the End of the World 'Eating Ashes bravely addresses the pain of migration, but also the desire, contradictions and rage of a young woman trying to make sense of her brother's suicide... Moving, urgent and beautiful.' Mónica Ojeda, author of Jawbone

'Stunning...an energetic and harrowing new voice.' Miriam Toews, author of Fight Night 'Furious and feline... The first real masterpiece in our language in 2022.' El Mundo 'A devastating story... Completely addictive.' Esquire 'A writer who pulls us along with the irreparable violence of her writing in order to make us understand that everyone is free (or should be) to choose their own redemption. And nothing can be more fair and admirable in this life that is neither fair nor admirable.' Los Libreros Recomiendan 'Brenda Navarro writes masterfully and there is lots of work behind her two novels, but the best part about them is the identity of her characters, who feel complete and real to readers despite their emotional devastation. Social realism with the strength of fiction as a turbo-empathizer. An incredible novel.' La buena vida 'Navarro stands out as a master when it comes to the construction of sustained voices that are suspended in a poor, almost delirious equilibrium. Because even three pages in, you’re already immersed in the story and all of its latent conflicts.' Babelia, El País

'Stunning...an energetic and harrowing new voice.' Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking 'One of the best-kept secrets of Mexican literature.' Fernanda Melchor, author of International Booker-Prize shortlisted Hurricane Season 'Furious and feline... The first real masterpiece in our language in 2022.' El Mundo 'A devastating story... Completely addictive.' Esquire 'A writer who pulls us along with the irreparable violence of her writing in order to make us understand that everyone is free (or should be) to choose their own redemption. And nothing can be more fair and admirable in this life that is neither fair nor admirable.' Los Libreros Recomiendan 'Brenda Navarro writes masterfully and there is lots of work behind her two novels, but the best part about them is the identity of her characters, who feel complete and real to readers despite their emotional devastation. Social realism with the strength of fiction as a turbo-empathizer. An incredible novel.' La buena vida 'Raw, ingenious and addictive.' El País 'An author who knows that behind all affection lies hidden danger.' Yuri Herrera, author of Signs Preceding the End of the World 'Eating Ashes bravely addresses the pain of migration, but also the desire, contradictions and rage of a young woman trying to make sense of her brother's suicide... Moving, urgent and beautiful.' Mónica Ojeda, author of Jawbone

Author Information

BRENDA NAVARRO was born in Mexico City. She studied Sociology and Feminist Economics at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She has a Masters in Gender Studies from the University of Barcelona. In 2016 she founded #EnjambreLiterario, a group of authors who promote writing by women. Brenda is a scriptwriter and regular contributor to El Pais newspaper and other outlets. She lives in Madrid. MEGAN McDOWELL has translated books by many contemporary South American and Spanish authors, and her translations have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's and The Paris Review. She lives in Chile.

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