Juan Vidal

No American writer has been able to pin down the intersection of faith, prayer and art like Flannery O'Connor. Critic Juan Vidal reflects on her Prayer Journal, and the faith that words can live.

Argentinian novelist Alan Pauls' latest kicks off as so many good stories do: With a dead body and a disappearing briefcase full of cash. Critic Juan Vidal calls Pauls a "master builder" of fiction.

This new volume collects some of the uncompromising writer's greatest hits, from her coverage of the march on Selma to Monica Lewinsky, and of course her famous takedown of film critic Pauline Kael.

Brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were at the heart of Soviet science fiction; reviewer Juan Vidal says The Dead Mountaineer's Inn is less edgy than some of their work, but still a must-read.

Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra's new story collection shows off his exacting eye, comic timing and powers of description; critic Juan Vidal says the narratives flow like a glass of cool water.

NYRB Classics has just reissued Tristana, an 1892 novel by the great Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós. Critic Juan Vidal says Tristana's intelligence and emotional richness is comparable to Dickens.

A Little Lumpen Novelita is an intoxicating tale of a teenage girl who struggles to stay afloat. It cements Roberto Bolaño's place as the most commanding Latin American writer of the last few decades.

Many readers know and love One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. But critic Juan Vidal suggests you not overlook Gabriel Garcia Marquez's dynamic, poetic short stories.

Issue 46 of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern showcases crime fiction from all over Latin America, with new stories from writers like Alejandro Zambra. Reviewer Juan Vidal calls it rousing and essential.

Brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky originally published their sci-fi classic Definitely Maybe in 1974. Now, a new translation restores cuts made by Soviet censors to this subversive tale of scientists exploring a reluctant universe. Reviewer Juan Vidal says "you'll laugh, you'll look around suspiciously, you'll throw the text across the room."