The books that marked 2022

The year ends and it is time for balance sheets. Without intending to be canonical, we use memory to recount those titles that, either due to their literary quality or the controversy they generated, gave rise to talk during 2022.

Brenda Navarro. She ash in the mouth. Sixth floor. 196pp.

Novela narrates the emotional journey of a young woman who intuits the reasons for her teenage brother’s suicide and stars in her own Ulysses syndrome, in which neither going nor coming back is really destiny. A story of separations and abandonment, longing and anger, loss and initiation into life, in which the Mexican woman addresses issues such as inequality, xenophobia or uprooting.

Ariana Harwicz. The feebleminded Dharma Books. 96pp.

In this novel, the Argentinean strains the affective and family ties between a mother and her young daughter to the limit, who live almost hidden from the world. A work that introduces the reader to the feeling of anticipated mourning.

Cormac McCarthy. The Passenger/Stella Maris. Random House Literature. trad. Luis Murillo Fort. 624pp.

After 16 years, the American storyteller returns with a couple of masterpieces. The passenger is a compelling novel about morality and science, the legacy of sin and madness that lives in the human conscience. Stella Maris: Told through the transcripts of psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is an inquisitive and intellectually challenging companion to The Passenger, as well as a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.

Cristina Piña – Patricia Venti. Alejandra Pizarnik. Biography of a myth. lumen. 427pp.

Update of the most complete biography of Alejandra Pizarnik. The authors consulted the complete diaries of the writer, deposited in the Princeton University Library, together with her notebooks, drafts, correspondence and her plastic works; they had long conversations with friends and relatives of the poet.

Laura Sofia Rivera. Encyclopedia of everyday arts. Moledro. 112pp.

Without a doubt, we are facing one of the most talented essayists of her generation. Here she reviews ordinary life in depth through humor. This book reminds readers that any collection of essays is, in the end, one person’s encyclopedia.

wake up Apocalypse baby. Random House Literature. trad. Robert Juan-Cantavella. 307pp.

A couple will travel from Paris to Barcelona in an epic investigation. Between social satire, contemporary thriller and romance, Despentes explores the aftermath of social inequality in Europe, as well as the destructive hedonism of a lost youth.

Mircea Cartarescu. The wing. Blinding 3. Impediment. trad. Marian Ochoa de Eribe. 560pp.

From the winner of the FIL Prize for Literature in Romance Languages, this year comes the third and final installment of his Cegador series. In El ala, he shows how Bucharest is a mausoleum, a city of the dead and of the night, of ruins and misery.

David Huerta. The wind on the platform. Mount Carmel Editions. 96pp.

Months before the poet died, he published one of his most personal and endearing books. The wind on the platform is a poetic exercise on friendship, life and writing.

Leonardo Padura. decent people. tusquets. 448pp.

The Cuban writer published a new installment of the saga dedicated to detective Mario Conde. On this occasion, the detective will have to solve a double crime that occurs in the context of the visit of Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones to the island in 2016.

Annie Ernaux. The place. tusquets. trad. Nahir Gutierrez. 112pp.

This is the most recent book, published in Spanish, by the French writer who won the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature. The personal universe and critical gaze of her time are present in a work that unceremoniously addresses the father-daughter relationship.

Raymundo M. Campos Vázquez. Inequalities. Why a more egalitarian country benefits us. Grain of Salt. 272 ​​pp.

The economist unravels the various incarnations that this problem has in Mexico: from the most obvious of all, the economic one, to those of race and gender.

Roger Bartra. Mutations. Debate. 400pp.

These memories are the record of the intellectual and personal development of Roger Bartra, who in 2022 turned 80 years old. Here we find a glimpse into the consciousness that animates his life and thought.

Richard Firth-Godbehere. Homo emoticus. Salamander. trad. Francisco J. Ramos Mena. 396pp.

Thanks to his solid knowledge in psychology, neuroscience, art, philosophy and religion, Richard Firth-Godbehere weaves together a fascinating journey through the history of humanity from an absolutely original perspective, a story that explains how emotions have shaped the world in which we live. we live in all its complexity, wonder and diversity.

Peter Culshaw. Clandestine. In search of Manu Chao. Kultrum Books. trad. Jules Vineyards. 430pp.

While the musician returns to Mexico and better yet, to play in the Zócalo, you can read this report For the better part of five years, the British writer, composer, critic and journalist Peter Culshaw had the rare privilege of accompanying Manu Chao in a tour. The distillate of the confidences spilled throughout such adventures is the cornerstone of a biography that transcends the musical work of the artist.

Oswaldo Zavala. The war in words. Debate. 512pp.

Based on an investigation of official archives, journalistic reports, academic studies and cultural productions on drug trafficking, Oswaldo Zavala reviews the historical arch of the language in which the narrative of war in our contemporary society and the illusion of criminal organizations such as the domestic enemy.

Raul Olmos. The gray house. Grijalbo. 242pp.

Book that records the political scandal of the year. The journalist exposes the irregularities around the Houston mansion rented by Carolyn Adams, the partner of José Ramón López Beltrán, son of President López Obrador.

Elena Chavez. The King of Cash. Grijalbo. 288pp.

Regardless of political sympathies, the truth is that Elena Chávez’s testimony became one of the most mentioned titles of the year, due to the alleged denunciation that she makes of the financial networks that move around the president.