Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Letters From Latin America: July 28, 2022
LEO BOIX reviews fiction by Argentinian Ariana Harwicz and Colombian Cristina Bendek, and poetry collections by Bolivian Rocio Agreda Pierola and Anglo-Argentine Miguel Cullen

SALT CRYSTALS (Charco Press, £11.99) is Cristina Bendek debut novel.

The book, flawlessly translated by Robyn Myers, recounts the story of Victoria Baruq, a young woman of mixed Raizal (Afro-Caribbeans from the Colombian archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina) and Lebanese ancestry, who has lived for several years in Mexico City.

She decides to return to San Andres, her birthplace, after the sudden death of both her parents.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
boix
Letters from Latin America / 23 September 2025
23 September 2025

A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin

COMPASSION: Author Banu Mushtaq, right, and translator Deepa Bhasthi with the International Booker Prize statuettes last Tuesday
Books / 27 May 2025
27 May 2025

Heart Lamp by the Indian writer Banu Mushtaq and winner of the 2025 International Booker prize is a powerful collection of stories inspired by the real suffering of women, writes HELEN VASSALLO

Elizabeth Bishop in 1964 in Petropolis were she lived for 15 years with architect Lota de Macedo Soares / Pic: Brazilian National Archives/CC
Books / 26 May 2025
26 May 2025

FIONA O'CONNOR recommends a biography that is a beautiful achievement and could stand as a manifesto for the power of subtlety in art

boix
Letters from Latin America / 20 May 2025
20 May 2025

LEO BOIX introduces a bold novel by Mapuche writer Daniela Catrileo, a raw memoir from Cuban-Russian author Anna Lidia Vega Serova, and powerful poetry by Mexican Juana Adcock