Books set in South America

[blueberry2310]

My ds’s teacher is leaving to go traveling in South America. I’d love to give her a good novel set in the area as part of her leaving present. Any one got any great suggestions? Thanks so much

The House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende. In fact most things by Isabelle Allende.

Ahhh this is going to be a thread I will love.

Lovely idea OP.
Do you know which part she is travelling to as it is vast.

Definitely Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Try Love in the time of Cholera.
If Brazil, Jorge Amado.

Will think of some more.

She starts in Mexico and then spends lots of time in Columbia and chile. Thanks for your suggestions.

Something by Mario Vargas Llosa. Check the synopsis though as some are a bit rude 😂 but I got in to his writing after picking one up during a long wait at a Peruvian airport.

If Mexico - Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquival. Think it is a bit rude though!

Gabriel Garcia marquiez definitely then, Colombia's most famous writer.

In keeping with the travelling theme how about Paul Theroux - The Old Patagonian Express ?
Alejo Carpentier's The Rite of Spring is one of my favourite books of all times - might be a bit hard to find though.
If not anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I particularly enjoyed The Autumn of the Patriarch.
Or something contemporary such as The Mermaid and the Drunks by Ben Richards.

Louis de Bernières did a trilogy in South America. Kind of a blend of history and myth, including some intense violence, but I loved them. Magical and intense, and made me want to get to know south America better.

Yes would second those Louis de berneieres ones, they are brilliant.

It isn't a novel and I haven't read it but The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell is apparently really good.

Third love in the time of cholera by Garcia marquez

Oh yes Paul Theroux is a great suggestion. Or a book called Inka Cola about a group of middle aged friends travelling about South America, can’t remember the author though.

Some Pablo Neruda?

Another endorsement for Love in the Time of Cholera here. The short story collection, No one Writes to the General too. Bruce Chatwin In Patagonia might be also be of interest

Thanks for all your suggestions. I’m going to head to the book shop and see which ones I can find.

Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (Argentina)

A Travel memoir rather than a novel, but “In Patagonia” by Bruce Chatwin is wonderful.

Not a novel, but Gerald Durrell's The Whispering Land is a good read.

I never managed to finish it, but Conrad's Nostromo is set in South America.