Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories

The “propulsive & mesmerizing” (NY Times) story collection by the International Booker–shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed —now with a new short story.

In these wildly imaginative, devilishly daring tales of the macabre, internationally bestselling author Mariana Enriquez brings contemporary Argentina to vibrant life as a place where shocking inequality, violence, & corruption are the law of the land, while military dictatorship & legions of desaparecidos loom large in the collective memory.

In these stories, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson & Julio Cortázar, three young friends distract themselves with drugs & pain in the midst a government-enforced blackout; a girl with nothing to lose steps into an abandoned house & never comes back out; to protest a viral form of domestic violence, a group of women set themselves on fire.

But alongside the black magic & disturbing disappearances, these stories are fueled by compassion for the frightened & the lost, ultimately bringing these characters—mothers & daughters, husbands & wives—into a surprisingly familiar reality. 

Written in hypnotic prose that gives grace to the grotesque, Things We Lost in the Fire is a powerful exploration of what happens when our darkest desires are left to roam unchecked, & signals the arrival of an astonishing & necessary voice in contemporary fiction.

Translated by the National Book Award-winning Megan McDowell, these “slim but phenomenal” (Vanity Fair) stories ask the biggest questions of life & show why Enriquez has become one of the most celebrated new voices in global literature.

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Mariana Enriquez is from Buenos Aires. In English, she has published the novel Our Share of Night & two story collections, Things We Lost in the Fire & 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