Spotlight On: Charco Press
By Mollie Gregory-Clark, Priyanka Joshi and Isobel Jones
Charco Press, based in Edinburgh, is an independent publisher dedicated to bringing contemporary Latin American literature to the forefront. Established in 2017 by Carolina Orloff and Samuel McDowell, Charco Press acts as a bridge connecting the readers of the English-speaking world to Latin American literature. Determined to transform the current literary scene and represent literature that has been overlooked, Charco Press’ use of contemporary translators has brought them notable success, including three International Booker Prize nominations.
Among other honours, Charco Press has published the 2021 Premio Valle Inclan winner, A Musical Offering translated by Fionn Petch, and the 2019 Jabuti Award winner, Resistance by Julián Fuks. Moreover, the Press was voted Scotland Small Press of the Year at the Nibbies (British Book Awards) in 2021 and 2019, and has been nominated for Publisher of the Year at the Scottish National Literary Awards.
New Releases
The Remains - Margo Glantz
Following the sudden death of renowned pianist and composer Juan, his ex-wife Nora Garcia, a cellist, returns to the Mexican village of her past for the funeral, recounting the art and music of their life together. Scenes from the past begin to circulate in her mind, creating a story described as a symphony in words. Filled with motifs, repetition and contrapuntal notes, shifting between Nora’s life with Juan and the present day The Remains is a novel about love, loss and the ways that music and art can create our identities.
You Shall Leave Your Land - Renato Cisneros
In this captivating sequel to his award-winning memoir, Peruvian author Renato Cisneros explores his family’s past in the early 1820s, starting with his great-great-grandmother’s secret relationship with a priest and the toll this secrecy took on their seven children. With Peru’s changing political landscape becoming a paramount influence on the family’s lives, Renato Cisneros writes an engaging account of a powerful family within this extraordinary work of autofiction.
A Little Luck - Claudia Pineiro
Finalist for the 2022 International Booker Prize A Little Luck follows Mary Lohan’s return to the Buenos Aires suburb she escaped from twenty years prior following a dreadful incident, leaving her son behind. Upon her return, she is not the same. She does not look the same, sound the same or even have the same name, yet the past soon begins to show itself in this fascinating, emotive fiction. In this highly accomplished and original novel, Pineiro skilfully explores loss and the search for home, the weight of lies and tragedies that can follow a single event.
Two Sherpas - Sebastian Martinez Daniell
In this unpredictable mixture of matters of life and death, two Sherpas look over the mountain edge at the unmoving body of an English climber attempting to climb Mount Everest. Wondering what to do next, Daniell takes us into the minds of the Sherpas, their histories and aspirations. Masterfully translated by Jennifer Croft, Two Sherpas is a profound, simple and beautiful novel with so much to explore.
Notable releases
The Adventures of China Iron - Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
It’s 1872 and China Iron, the teenage wife of Argentina’s most canonical literary figure, Martín Fierro, wants to tell her side of the country’s foundational fiction. In this queer, feminist, post-colonial re-imagining of José Hernández’ epic poem, Cabezón Cámara gives voice to those who were originally excluded from Argentina’s nation-building narratives, re-framing history as she writes. Join China – and her companion-turned-lover, Liz – on her exhilarating journey of sexual liberation and self-discovery as she explores the ruggedly beautiful landscapes and indigenous territories of the Argentine Pampas.
Homesick - Jennifer Croft
This poignant auto-fictional memoir from the award-winning translator, Jennifer Croft, is the perfect read for language lovers. Interspersed with ruminations on the origins and power of words, Homesick provides snapshots into the early life of our protagonist, Amy, a gifted linguist and the protective older sister of Zoe, who suffers with a debilitating illness. The girls’ sisterly bond is explored through their unique form of mutual understanding – common experiences, shared references, particular turns-of-phrase – ultimately transforming the narrative into a celebration of the richness of language and the transformative effect it can have on our understanding of ourselves and our relationships to others.
Resistance - Julián Fuks
A complex meditation on memory, belonging, and silenced histories, Resistance is narrated by Julián Fuks’ auto-fictional alter-ego, Sebastián, a child of political refugees whose liberal parents fled the Argentine dictatorship for Brazil in 1974. Before their departure to São Paulo, Sebastián’s parents adopted his older brother – a boy whose origins remain a mystery to his adoptive family and who, with age, becomes increasingly withdrawn from family life. The chasm of silence that opens up between Sebastián’s family members in relation to their traumatic memories causes him to wonder: How should one cope with a reluctance to talk about the past? What does it mean, as a child of exile, to be intimately connected to a country in which you’ve never lived? And, perhaps most hauntingly, could his brother possibly be the child of disappeared political opponents?