Service95 Recommends is the home of the books we’re loving and reviews from our contributors. No Place To Bury The Dead by Karina Sainz Borgo (translated by Elizabeth Bryer) unfolds through the eyes of Angustias Romero and her family as she navigates the aftermath of losing her two children as she enters a mysterious town where the boundaries between truth and fantasy become indistinct.
What We Say: “In the wake of a devastating plague that erases the memories of its victims, a woman flees with her family from a Latin American country, only to endure the tragic loss of her two children. Grief-stricken, she enters Mezquite — a surreal, dreamlike town caught between magic and chaos. Here, the lines between reality and illusion blur, as the town’s inhabitants, refugees, and dangerous gangs weave stories to survive in a place consumed by corruption and greed. Angustias is a tale where the haunting beauty of magical realism collides with the raw truths of political fiction, offering a poignant and often overlooked glimpse into the personal struggles at the heart of the migrant crisis” – Maria Padget
What They Say: “[A] rich and lyrical tale of desperation and redemption, set during an outbreak of a plague that causes amnesia.... Throughout, Sainz Borgo applies stark poetry to the terrifying setting, where ‘moans and cries attributed to ghosts sometimes masked executions and beatings.’ It’s a stunner.” — Publishers Weekly
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Maria Padget is Service95 Book Club Director
