Human Sacrifices
This acclaimed short story collection by a groundbreaking voice in contemporary Latin American literature confronts machismo, inequity, and violence.
An undocumented woman answers a job posting only to find herself held hostage, a group of outcasts obsess over boys drowned while surfing, and an unhappy couple finds themselves trapped in a terrifying maze. With scalpel-like precision, Ampuero considers the price paid by those on the margins so that the elite might lounge comfortably, considering themselves safe in their homes.
Simultaneously terrifying and exquisite, Human Sacrifices is “tropical gothic” at its finest—decay and oppression underlie our humid and hostile world, where working-class women and children are consistently the weakest links in a capitalist economy. Against this backdrop of corrosion and rot, these twelve stories contemplate the nature of exploitation and abuse, illuminating the realities of those society consumes for its own pitiless ends.
“Fast, fierce and relentlessly brutal, these 12 stories are the literary equivalent of a feminist death metal album.” —The New York Times
“María Fernanda Ampuero’s Human Sacrifices is one of the best short story collections of 2023, regardless of genre.” —Locus Magazine
“The stories in Human Sacrifices show that one’s security in a capitalist, patriarchal society is never guaranteed; there must be sacrifices—human ones—to stay afloat.” —Full Stop
“Set against backdrops of immigrant struggles and crumbling tropical infrastructures, Ampuero’s exquisite writing explores the nuances of the Latina experience in her home country and abroad.” —Southern Review of Books
“Ampuero is a stylish writer, but her stories are dangerous whirlpools, dragging the reader into their deadly undertow." —The Daily Mail
“Wildly imaginative and seriously dark.” —Book Riot
“This is a haunting book.” —Ms. Magazine
“With guts, blood, and a dense anger, [Ampuero] escorts us to a precipice with each story, strips us naked, and delivers us to a place where the wounds of Latin American are made real, and thus can be dissected.” —Asymptote Journal
“Much like the harsh systematic forces that plague her work, Ampuero doesn’t relinquish her ever-tightening grasp till the book’s end.” —Big Issue
“María Fernanda Ampuero’s writing is pure horror and aesthetic joy. Human Sacrifices is a magnificent book that still haunts me to this day.” —Mónica Ojeda, author of Jawbone
“Raw and savage, delving into the violence of machismo, inequality and abuse." —Vistazo
“The reader is immersed into a violent and cruel world, described in splendid prose. . . . Ampuero writes from fury." —Vanguardia (Mexico)
Translated by Frances Riddle
Softcover book, 130 pages.
