Seven Empty Houses (National Book Award Winner)

By: Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell - translator

Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi, Gisela Chipe, Ines del Castillo, Daisy Guevara, Lee Osorio, Elena Rey, Victoria Villarreal

Winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Translated Literature

A blazing new story collection that will make you feel like the house is collapsing in on you, from the 3 time International Booker Prize finalist, "lead[ing] a vanguard of Latin American writers forging their own 21st-century canon.” –O, the Oprah magazine

The seven houses in these seven stories are strange. A person is missing, or a truth, or memory; some rooms are enticing, some unmoored, others empty. But in Samanta Schweblin's tense, visionary tales, something always creeps back inside: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die, a child's first encounter with darkness or the fallibility of parents.

In each story, twists and turns will unnerve and surprise: Schweblin never takes the expected path and instead digs under the skin, revealing surreal truths about our sense of home, of belonging, and of the fragility of our connections with others. This is a masterwork from one of our most brilliant modern writers.


Cover art: Detail of "Le modele vivant" by René Magritte, 1953 / © 2022 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photo © Christie's Images / Bridgeman Images

Wonderful

Each story is truly captivating. It leaves you with some space for your own imagination to finish the stories. The stories in the original language is better, but I enjoyed listening to the English translation. Samantha Schweblin does it again

Weird

Not in a wrong way…but I will have to listen to it again. I have a feeling it went over my head. Nice to hear from the Latino culture.

Pointless

I guess this is what passes for literature nowadays? maybe it seemed interesting to the writer as she wrote it, but it was not interesting to the reader

All seven houses were awful, bizarre and weird! How did this get any awards???

The houses were disjointed , illogical, strange with poor endings. I couldn’t wait for the stories to end.