Published on April 26, 2024
Boost your Spanish by reading these 4 Spanish authors
Looking for some great Spanish authors to read, but not sure where to start? Your instincts are in the right place: reading is a gateway to culture and a fantastic way to pick up new vocabulary and idiomatic expressions in a foreign language. But it can be difficult to find an entry point into classic and contemporary Spanish literature, once you’re ready to move on from Spanish-language books for children and the various web options for reading in Spanish.
We’re here to provide that entry point — or, rather, four entry points. In this guide, we’ll cover four of our favorite Spanish-language books for adults, including reading options from four different Spanish-speaking countries (Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Spain).
Country of origin: Mexico
Famous work: La gente de arriba (2024)
Aura García-Junco (born 1988) is a contemporary Mexican author with three novels and numerous short stories and essays to her name. A graduate of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, she was named among Granta magazine’s 25 most outstanding young fiction writers in the Spanish language in 2021. A prodigious writer since her debut novel Anticitera, artefacto dentado (2019),
García-Junco’s 2024 short story La gente de arriba deals with a young woman living in downtown Mexico City. She describes the chisme (gossip) between neighbors as she confronts her transition into adulthood and the death of a father she barely knew. The story is accompanied by cute and quirky illustrations by Sherezada Leyva, and it includes a good amount of Mexican slang you can try out in an upcoming online Spanish class.
Follow García-Junco’s Instagram for notifications about upcoming publications.
Country of origin: Chile
Famous work: La casa de los espíritus (1982)
Born in Chile and now living in California, Isabel Allende (born 1942) is a Spanish-language author and novelist who writes about family, love and politics. The niece of Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected socialist president of Chile, she has a unique vantage point into her native country’s historical traumas.
Allende won Chile’s Premio Nacional de Literatura prize in 2010 and was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2014. Her work often addresses the political climate of the past 50 years in Chile and the Americas, and it does so with uncommon emotion and tact. Anyone who appreciates literary feminism is bound to appreciate her works, and language learners will especially benefit from her use of Chilean Spanish vocabulary.
Country of origin: Dominican Republic
Famous work: En el tiempo de las mariposas (1994)
Julia Álvarez (born 1950) is a poet and novelist from the Dominican Republic who now resides in the US. Following in the tradition of many great Spanish authors before her, Álvarez weaves her first-hand experience into stories that examine the political and social injustices in countries where she has lived.
In the historical-fiction novel recommended above, “las mariposas” refers to the three Mirabal sisters. The novel takes its inspiration from their real-life story of active opposition to the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, which ultimately led to their murder on November 25, 1960. The novel is a story of family infighting and political willpower that will also expose you to Dominican Spanish vocabulary.
Country of origin: Spain
Famous works: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605)
No list of Spanish authors would be complete without Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616). Cervantes is widely regarded as one of the greatest Spanish authors of all time — perhaps the greatest. Many literary scholars even consider his most famous work, Don Quixote de la Mancha, to be the first novel of the modern world.
Among the book’s many contributions is the word “quixotic,” which describes someone who is exceedingly idealistic or impractical. This English-language word derives from the title character in Don Quixote, who engages in such silly behavior as challenging a windmill to a jousting match.
With Spanish authors hailing from every corner of the globe, this list covers our personal favorites at the moment. A pleasant mix of classics and contemporary Spanish-language writers is a good place to start if you’re beginning to read longer works to improve your Spanish. When you’re ready to expand your horizons, plenty more Spanish authors will be available for you to discover. In the meantime, García-Junco, Allende, Álvarez and Cervantes are a solid place to start.
