Mariana Enriquez & Max Porter in Conversation

‘“Is it true?” Gaspar had asked. “Is it true that the dead travel fast?” His father had finally looked up and said, simply: “Some do.”’ Argentinian mistress of dark literature, Mariana Enriquez joins us in Manchester to discuss her superb, brutal novel Our Share of Night (translated by Megan McDowell). Gaspar is six years old when the Order first come for him. For years, they have exploited his father's ability to commune with the dead and the demonic, presiding over macabre rituals where the unwanted and the disappeared are tortured and executed, sacrificed to the Darkness. Now they want a successor. The novel spans the brutal decades of Argentina's military dictatorship and its aftermath, offering a critique of its rule.

Mariana is the author of the short story collections Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (also translated by Megan McDowell), which was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize. Our Share of Night was awarded the prestigious Premio Herralde de Novela. Mariana will be in conversation with Max Porter, award-winning writer of Lanny and Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. Presented in partnership with Instituto Cervantes.