Popular South American Historical Books
Find historical books written by authors from South America for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (21)
11.
I the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos EN
Country: South America / 
Paraguay
Paraguay
Description:
I the Supreme imagines a dialogue between the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator known as Dr. Francia and Policarpo Patiño, his secretary and only companion. The opening pages present a sign that they had found nailed to the wall of a cathedral, purportedly written by Dr. Francia himself and ordering the execution of all of his servants upon his death. This sign is quickly revealed to be a forgery, which takes leader and secretary into a larger discussion about the nature of truth: “In the light of what Your Eminence says, even the truth appears to be a lie.” Their conversation broadens in... continue
12.
It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo EN
Country: South America / 
Venezuela
Venezuela
Description:
Told with gripping intensity, It Would be Night in Caracas chronicles one woman’s desperate battle to survive amid the dangerous, sometimes deadly, turbulence of modern Venezuela and the lengths she must go to secure her future. In Caracas, Venezuela, Adelaida Falcon stands over an open grave. Alone, except for harried undertakers, she buries her mother–the only family Adelaida has ever known. Numb with grief, Adelaida returns to the apartment they shared. Outside the window that she tapes shut every night—to prevent the tear gas raining down on protesters in the streets from seeping inWhen lo... continue
13.
Oblivion : A Memoir by Héctor Abad EN
Country: South America / 
Colombia
Colombia
Description:
Now the basis for the acclaimed film Memories of My Father, directed by Fernando Trueba. "An irreplaceable testimony of the struggle for democracy and tolerance in Latin America." —El País Héctor Abad's Oblivion is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written memorial to the author's father, Héctor Abad Gómez, whose criticism of the Colombian regime led to his murder by paramilitaries in 1987. Twenty years in the writing, it paints an unforgettable picture of a man who followed his conscience and paid for it with his life during one of the darkest periods in Latin America's recent history.
14.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez EN
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women -- brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul -- this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
15.
Open Veins of Latin America : Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano EN
Country: South America / 
Uruguay
Uruguay
Description:
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hi... continue
16.
Operation Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh EN
Country: South America / 
Argentina
Argentina
Description:
1956. Argentina has just lost its charismatic president Juán Perón in a military coup, and terror reigns across the land. June 1956: eighteen people are reported dead in a failed Peronist uprising. December 1956: sometime journalist, crime fiction writer, studiedly unpoliticized chess aficionado Rodolfo Walsh learns by chance that one of the executed civilians from a separate, secret execution in June, is alive. He hears that there may be more than one survivor and believes this unbelievable story on the spot. And right there, the monumental classic Operation Massacre is born. Walsh made it hi... continue
17.
Seconds Out by Martín Kohan EN
Country: South America / Argentina
Argentina
Description:
Music, sport and crime come together to recreate the past in a disturbing investigation that questions the media's role
18.
The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara EN
Country: South America / Argentina
Argentina
Description:
Publisher Description
19.
The Spanish Daughter : A Gripping Latinx Historical Novel by Lorena Hughes EN
Country: South America / 
Ecuador
Ecuador
Description:
Inheriting a cocoa plantation in Vinces, Ecuador, that someone will kill for, Puri, after her husband is murdered, assumes his identity to search for the truth of her father's legacy and learn the identity of the enemy who stands in her way of claiming her birthright.
20.
The Twilight Zone : A Novel by Nona Fernández EN
Country: South America / 
Chile
Chile
Description:
* Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature * An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández’s mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man’s face on the magazine’s cover with the words “I Tortured People.” His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime ... continue