Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (2016)

Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories (Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez, published in 2016 by the Editorial Anagrama. Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. The work has 12 stories framed in the horror genre, in which Enríquez explores social issues such as depression, poverty, eating disorders, inequality and gender violence. The name of the work is taken from the album Things We Lost in the Fire, released in 2001 by the American band Low, of which Enríquez is a fan.

"The Intoxicated Years" was published in Granta. "Spiderweb" appeared in The New Yorker.

Literary significance and reception

Reviews of the collection highlighted Enriquez's dark and haunting style. A review in The Guardian called the collection "gruesome, violent, upsetting – and bright with brilliance." Jennifer Szalai, writing in The New York Times, wrote "[Enriquez] is after a truth more profound, and more disturbing, than whatever the strict dictates of realism will allow."

In a review in Vanity Fair, Sloane Crosley was impressed by Enriquez's skill at using supernatural stories to explore Argentina's political turmoil: "In her hands, the country’s inequality, beauty, and corruption tangle together to become a manifestation of our own darkest thoughts and fears."