Classic/favorite Spanish novels?

[schneefink]

My mom has been learning Spanish for several years now and will soon spend several months as a music teacher in Bolivia (!) She got a new ebook-reader for the trip and LB and I want to get her some novels to read in Spanish. I know very little about Spanish/South American literature, so recommendations would be very helpful. A friend already recommended Frederico Garcia Lorca and Isabele Allende and "that one author whose names escapes me right now but I'll tell you later", but not specific works.

Comments

[the_rck]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is excellent.

[schneefink]

I heard of him! Thanks for the rec.

[alatefeline]

Some major Spanish-language novels that I read for literature courses and deeply enjoyed or valued:

El beso de la mujer arana, Manuel Puig
Por estas calles bravas, Piri Tomas
Aura, Carlos Fuentes
La vide es sueno, Calderon de la Barca
El coronel no tiene quein le escriba, Gabriel Darcia Marquez
El matadero, Esteban Echeverria

Some of these are pretty heavy topics while some are pretty easy reading, and some are short, and they may or may not stack logically in this categories.

Also check out
The plays of Lorca
The historic poetry of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz
The English / Spanish Chicanx literary work of Gloria Anzaldua...
...and Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street / La casa en Mango Street is particularly approachable)
The YA books of Gary Soto
The poetry of Borges and Mistral

This list is skewing guy-heavy and also skewing in other ways, so I'll try to come back to it later with additional recommendations later - some of which I will need to read to decide to rec or not, so thank you for getting me started!

As a reader, I have found that children's books in Spanish are actually more fun than adult novels because even when I comprehend every word putting it all together is a lot of work ... so while she may be more fluent than me, don't be afraid to throw some fun, colorful, easy, playful stuff in the mix.

[schneefink]

Thanks for the recs! :D Very helpful. (And some of these I'll see if I can find in languages I can read later.)

[alatefeline]

I hope you and your mom both have fun reading. I will!

*hunts for new books in 2-ish languages*

[tamsin]

I really enjoyed La sombra del viento/Der Schatten des Windes by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

[schneefink]

I liked that too. I think she's read it, though maybe not in Spanish? Hm.
Thanks :)

[isis]

I wasn't crazy about the Alatriste series by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (in translation), but I LOVED his The Nautical Chart (La carta esférica), which I note in my review "reminded me of 'The Shadow of the Wind'".