Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories

Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell

Book cover for Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories
Image for variant 9780593733271
Book cover for Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories
Image for variant 9780593733271

Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories

Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories

Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell

View full details

About the Author

Mariana Enriquez is a writer based in Buenos Aires. In English, she has published the novel Our Share of Night and two story collections, Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, which was a finalist for the International Booker Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction.

Megan McDowell has translated many of the most important Latin American writers working today. Her translations have won numerous prizes, including the National Book Award, and have been nominated for the International Booker Prize four times. She is from Richmond, Kentucky, and lives in Santiago, Chile.

Critical Reviews

"Horror that illuminates humanity's true monsters . . . Enriquez indicts our worst offensives in twelve haunting new stories."--The New York Times Book Review

"[A] goddess of grotesque tales."--The Guardian

"One hell of a read . . . The collection is poignant, seething, and hypnotic--Megan McDowell's translation hits such elevated emotional registers that the prose sings on the page."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Enriquez is Buenos Aires's sorceress of horror."--The New York Times

"Enriquez demonstrates yet again why she's an undisputed master of short horror."--Vulture

"Across 12 unnerving tales . . . the bestselling Argentine author and journalist writes of perimenopausal body horror, Kafkaesque transformations, and a town overrun by ghosts."--Time

"This collection is perfect to read with all the lights in your apartment off except one, alone, alert to every noise, ensuring you'll be unable to sleep after the last page is finished."--The Cut

"A must-read."--BookRiot

"Enriquez's writing is mesmerizing and beautiful, yet it also worms its way inside of you and sets the seeds for a haunting that you will be thinking about for long after you've finished reading . . . Another can't-miss Halloween-time read."--Chicago Review of Books

"[Enriquez] established herself as one of the most compelling and important voices in modern literary horror. Now . . . she's back with a collection of 12 stories showcasing her singular approach to dark tales."--Paste Magazine

"Enriquez has made a name for herself blending supernatural horrors with the concrete horrors of everyday life in Argentina. This newest one is a collection of shorts--like a pillowcase full of trick-or-treat candies."--NPR

"A Sunny Place for Shady People reveals as much about ourselves as it does our ineffably strange, horrific world. Enriquez's characters' desperate, longing struggle for meaning and hope has never been so poignant and beautiful, nor so damned chilling. A collection of brilliant nightmares from one of our best."--Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Cabin at the End of the World

"When you gaze into the abyss, Mariana Enriquez looks up to you from those depths, grins to herself, and then gives her attention back to the next story she's pulling into the world."--Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw

"Nobody does horror quite like Enriquez, whose stories linger at the edges of your consciousness long after they've ended."--Literary Hub

"Vivid and unnerving, these stories confirm Enriquez as one of Latin America's most original imaginations."--The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

"A masterful collection . . . these provocative tales are first-rate literary horror."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Enriquez's darkly humorous world view throbs throughout these weird and riveting tales, exerting the morbid fascination of a train wreck. . . . [These stories] are creepy enough to bring a shiver to every reader."--Booklist, starred review

"A triumphant return to the short form."--Reading in Translation

Publishing Information

Publisher: Hogarth Press
Pub date: 2025-09-09
Length: 272 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.