A hunt to find good women writers from Central + South America

One of my favourite things to do while travelling is to read a fictional novel set in the place I’m travelling in. Whether that be region, country or city, especially in areas I don’t know very well, I’ve found it to be a brilliant way to get a feel for the country. Some of my favourites have included reading Shantaram while backpacking around northern India (there’s nothing quite like sitting in the same cafe as the main character in your book!) - and, more recently, Indonesia Etc while I was in Indonesia last month, which, although non-fiction, is written in a really engaging and easy-to-read way.

So, as I’m travelling to Costa Rica tomorrow, I’ve been looking for books written by Costa Rican women, or set in Costa Rica, that I can download on my Kindle. Somehow, I’m having very little luck! Among all of the books in this Goodreads list of ‘Books set in Costa Rica’ none of them really take my fancy, or they aren’t available on Kindle (or, are written by men- which I’m not reading this year)

I came across good reviews of Tatiana Lobo’s book, Assault on Paradise but it’s unfortunately unavailable for download on the Kindle, and I don’t have time to buy a hard copy of it before travelling.

So, I tried asking on Twitter- it seems as though Costa Rican women writers are hard to find, but there were some really great suggestions of other women writers from Central and South America.

For posterity, I’m recording them here - I doubt I’ll get round to reading even a fraction on this trip, but in case they are useful to anybody else:

With big thanks to the very cool ladies on Twitter who recommended these books - Renata, Paz, Jinan, Marianne, Gaba, Biella, Gabriela, Lena, Maricarmen