Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month is the perfect time to dive into books by Latino authors. I love fiction books and was recently doing some research to find my next few reads. When I looked at my Audible and Kindle libraries, I realized I was seriously lacking in books by Latino authors. If your library lacks books by Latino authors like mine, check out the list below. I’ve included books I’ve read and books I want to read. If you have any recommendations, please share them with me!
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz
Description: Aristotle is a troubled teen with a brother in prison who has never met anyone like Dante, a boy with a strange way of looking at the world. When they meet at a swimming pool and start spending time together, Ari and Dante discover that they have an unusual friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari will learn the most important truths about himself and the type of person he wants to be.
The House of the Spirits
Author: Isabel Allende
Description: The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter Blanca embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban: his adored granddaughter Alba, a beautiful and strong-willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Author: Julia Alvarez
Description: The Garcia Girls is a story about tradition and family, but more than that, it is about finding your self-worth. In the 1960s, political tension forces the Garcia family away from Santo Domingo and toward the Bronx. As one sister after another falls in love and hits her stride, Mami and Papi have more difficulty adapting to their new country. While the girls frequently embarrass their parents with their rebellious ways, they also find ways to rebel against them.
In the Time of the Butterflies
Author: Julia Alvarez
Description: Julia Alvarez tells the story of Las Mariposas, a group of four beautiful sisters who flouted the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and paid for it with their lives. The sisters make a political commitment to overthrow the government but are soon harassed, persecuted, and imprisoned. The author brings these brave women to life with the help of her legendary grandmother, Maria Teresa, who survived the attack that killed her sisters.
The House on Mango Street
Author: Sandra Cisneros
Description: In a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes profoundly joyous-Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery. The novel follows Esperanza Cordero as she explores her identity and sexuality growing up in Chicago’s Latino barrio. In addition to being a powerful personal narrative and a coming-of-age story, this is also an insightful exploration of themes such as poverty, race, and gender differences as they play out with young people.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Author: Junot Díaz
Description: In his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz created a new fictional universe and conjured into it a unique set of characters—a mother and son who could live in any family; a beautiful family matriarch who holds the history of her clan close to her heart; a mad scientist on a quest for immortality; a revolutionary leader both feared and admired. This is also a powerful love story: the kind that binds families, communities, and generations together and the kind that explodes from within each one of us.
Lobizona
Author: Romina Garber
Description: Manuela Justina Azul, an undocumented immigrant on the run from her father’s Argentine crime family, is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida. Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manuela investigates the only clue she has about her past—a mysterious “Z” emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own.
Cien años de soledad / 100 Years of Solitude
Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Description: One Hundred Years of Solitude is the most important book by prolific and celebrated novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. The novel presents a picture of family life and ancestors in an imaginary place in Colombia called Macondo that has all kinds of exciting events, including ghosts, struggles with nature, kidnapping, and even murder.
Love In The Time Of Cholera
Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Description: In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. Their romance is passionate but short-lived as Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor. Florentino is devastated by the event and retreats into a life of philandering. Years later, after her husband dies, Florentino seeks our Fermina again, despite all his affairs over the years. Can they find new life in themselves, as well as in each other?
Shadowshaper
Author: Daniel José Older
Description: Sierra Santiago was ready for a summer of painting and hanging out with her friends, but it was not turning out to be so easy. When a dead body turns up at their party, her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood start weeping real tears . . . well, something sinister is going on. Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one — and now they’re coming after Sierra too!
