Human Sacrifices

María Fernanda Ampuero

Aug 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Raquel Beattie

About this audiobook

A groundbreaking voice in contemporary Latin American literature, Maria Fernanda Ampuero's writing is "raw and savage" as she confronts machismo, inequity, and violence in this acclaimed short story collection (Vistazo). 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. Contains mature themes.

About the author

Maria Fernanda Ampuero is a writer and a journalist. She is the author of the journalistic narrative nonfiction titles Lo que aprendi en la peluqueria and Permiso de residencia. In 2012 she was one of the 100 Most Influential Latin Americans in Spain, and in 2018, she won the first Mad Women Fest Short Story Prize.

Raquel Beattie has narrated over fifty books from her home studio. She speaks conversational Spanish and is comfortable with beginning French. She loves spending time with her husband and three kids, getting outside in nature, hanging with friends, dark humor, and eating good food.

Frances Riddle has translated numerous Spanish-language authors. Her translation of Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022 and her translation of Theatre of War by Andrea Jeftanovic was awarded an English PEN grant in 2021.