Short stories have always played an important role in Latin American literary history as provocative little mirrors reflecting important cultural traits distinctive to Latin America. The form is widely practiced by Latin American writers, who often have devoted their entire careers to it, and the form is greatly appreciated by critics and the reading public alike. Most critics, Latin American and otherwise, have a special metaphor to explain the difference between the novel and the short story, and in esteemed writer Carlos Fuentes' introduction to this vital gathering of contemporary examples of the Latin American short story, he presents his this way: "The novel is an ocean liner. The short story, a sailboat hugging the coast." One of the most potent of the featured "sailboats" here is Uruguayan Juan Carlos Onetti's "Hell Most Feared," in which a man is cruelly sent a series of salacious photographs by his ex-wife and ends up killing himself. But other masterpieces appear in this anthology as well. Brad Hooper
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"Each and every [story in] this collection is a treasure." --The Guardian

"Latin American fiction is where serious debate can be found and, at its best, makes the contemporary English equivalent seem frivolous and lacking in courage." --The Times (London)