My Sad Dead

by Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell (Translator)

"My Sad Dead” by Mariana Enriquez, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, from the February 13 & 20, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror

27 pages, ebook

First published February 13, 2023

About the author

Mariana Enriquez (Buenos Aires, 1973) es una periodista y escritora argentina.

Se recibió de Licenciada en Comunicación Social en la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Se ha desempeñado profesionalmente como periodista y columnista en medios gráficos, como el suplemento Radar del diario Página/12 (donde es sub-editora) y las revistas TXT, La mano, La mujer de mi vida y El Guardián. También participó en radio, como columnista en el programa Gente de a pie, por Radio Nacional.

Trabajó como jurado en concursos literarios y dictó talleres de escritura en la Fundación Tomás Eloy Martínez
Mariana Enríquez is a writer and editor based in Buenos Aires. She is the author of the novel Our Share of Night and has published two story collections in English, Things We Lost in the Fire and 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, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction.

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine story from Enriquez, characteristically colloquial and sardonic. A middle-aged woman finds she can communicate with sad and angry ghosts. Then she encounters one tormenting her entire neighborhood; she could help, but do her petty vindictive neighbors deserve her help?...

[Claire Mundell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Normalizes death in a haunting way that begs for the reader to self-reflect.

[Leilin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short read, but packing quite a punch, as usual with Mariana Enríquez.

I really like how she pushes her readers to the thresholds of reality, of humanity. She brings us to the edge, giving us but glimpses of the other side, just enough to cast our reality in clearer light, to question our humanity.

In this one, the writing is a bit more introspective and we get a bit more of a resolution at the end than what I got used to in Things We Lost in the Fire. I liked that the character slowly becomes one of the sad dead she cares so much about. She was a medical doctor for the living, and she gradually chooses to become the caretaker of those forgotten souls, soothing their suffering even when (or maybe especially because) there's no hope for them to ever get better.

[Edie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I need longer to really consolidate my thoughts... or maybe not, we'll see.

I appreciated the discursive, colloquial tone of the whole piece, and how the narrator would shift into this really analytical prose when discussing her daughter. As with all ghost stories, this is a narrative of the people who are left behind - and guilt.

The violent backdrop of the neighbourhood is both normalised and feared by the residents, which creates this really sickening discomfort, especially as Emma ponders if she would have let Matias in either.

[Ammara · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best short story i've read in a while

[Veronica · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love reading Mariana Enriquez, the best discovery i could do during pandemia.

[Sam Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atmospherically, this is a lovely, almost soothing horror tale of ghosts almost as elderly relatives to be cared for.

[Sara Ximena · Rating 4 out of 5]

otro relato magistral de Enriquez
nos deja con la certeza de que la protagonista se unirá a ellos