Eating Ashes

 

'Stunning... An energetic and harrowing new voice.' Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking

Winner of the Cálamo Award for the best book published in Spain in 2022

Winner of the Madrid Bookstores Association Award for the best book published in Spain in 2022

Winner of Todos tus libros Bookstores Spanish Association Award for the best book published in Spain in 2022

Winner of Arcebispo Juan de San Clemente Award for the best book published in Spanish language in Spain in 2023

***

The multi-award winning literary phenomenon, translated by Booker Prize-shortlisted Megan McDowell

Six seconds. A man falling. An image that haunts her forever.

Returning to the Mexico of their childhood, Diego's sister is plagued with questions, beset with crippling grief and guilt. As she struggles to get her head and her heart around her brother's death, she sees the life they shared anew. Here she tells their story: that of the poor, the exploited, the outsider far from home, with quiet power and vibrant prose. As she does so, she asks herself how well she really knew the boy she tried so hard to raise. And what, in the end, makes a life worth living?

Rippled through with flashes of dark humour, Eating Ashes is a heartbreaking examination of home, of loneliness and belonging, separation and loss, from a critically acclaimed Latin American novelist.

About the author

Megan McDowell has translated books by many contemporary South American and Spanish authors, and her translations have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's and The Paris Review. She lives in Chile.

Product details

• Authors: Megan McDowell, Brenda Navarro
• Assisted by: Megan McDowell (Translation)
• Publisher: Oneworld
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 08.01.2026
• EAN: 9781836430193
• ISBN: 978-1-83643-019-3
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Mexico, FICTION / General, FICTION / Coming of Age, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction & related items, FICTION / Literary, Fiction, FICTION / Family Life / Siblings, Fiction in translation, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Narrative theme: displacement, exile, migration, Latin-American Spanish, FICTION / World Literature / South America (General), FICTION / World Literature / Mexico, FICTION / Hispanic & Latino / General, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Family life fiction / Stories about family, Fiction: literary and general non-genre