The Ultimate Latin American Literature Bucket List

The South American tale of a woman conceived magically only gets more whimsical by the page. It's a classic by the renowned Chilean author, originally written in Spanish and later translated.

The epic tale of "two modern-day Quixotes" won Bolaño a plethora of awards when he published this wild, multicharacter tale in 1998.

Even if you've seen the movie, the book is still worth reading for the Mexican novelist's delicious descriptions of food, love, and family.

Yes, this list is going to be full of Gabriel García Márquez recommendations, and for good reason: he is the godfather of magical realism and Latin American lit. This particular collection of stories beautifully brings to life love and loss in small South American villages.

Scene: 1980s Chicago. Character: Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina growing up in a mostly Mexican and Puerto Rican neighborhood. The series of poignant vignettes is required reading for Latinas of any age.

Dorfman's (despite what you might think from his last name, he is, indeed, Chilean-American) famous (and dark!) play about a woman forced to come face to face with her torturer was adapted into a Roman Polanski film by the same name in 1994.

If you didn't read this in school (or even if you did and want to reread), Fuentes's novel about a man on his deathbed looking back at his life might give you some perspective on your own — and, warning, make you cry.

Critics often call the Nobel Prize-winning Paz the greatest writer to come out of Mexico, and this particular story — which looks at the frequent questions of Mexican identity — explains why.

Rayuela, or Hopscotch in English, is set around an Argentinian writer living with his mistress in Paris. A series of events quickly turns his life upside down, and his story is told through the protagonist's reflections, past and present.

Originally conceived as a magazine by the Cuban writer and journalist, La Edad de Oro was later compiled and edited into a children's book that became gospel to Cuban children who grew up on the island. Martí's straightforward messages about morals, life, and the joys of childhood will resonate with readers of all ages. If you read Spanish, many argue the original language is best, but there are English editions available as well.

The Cuban writer's autobiography gives the reader an unforgettable view into what it's like growing up in poor, rural Cuba as a homosexual who later fights as a rebel for Fidel Castro. Gripping!

This sexy '70s thriller by Argentinian writer Manuel Puig was, like many of the others on our list, also adapted into a film (in the '80s). But as usual, the book was even better than the movie; you'll fall into a new world with every page, each developing the tale of two Brazilian prisoners weaving stories for one another from their jail cell.

Cortázar's book of eight short stories is moving and, often, surprisingly hilarious. Some of our favorites (the English-language version is widely available): "The Southern Thruway," "The Island at Noon," and "The Other Sky."

All hail the queen of Latin American literature and magical realism. This award-winning novel (which earned international acclaim) about four generations of the Trueba family in post-Colonial Chile is unputdownable.

Now this, friends, is a true love story. A protagonist who is heartbroken when his beloved chooses to marry a doctor instead of him, Florentino spends his life in meaningless affairs until the day he can have a shot with his soul mate again. This is a must — and may require some tissues.

Even if you aren't typically into "chick lit," Valdés-Rodríguez's bestselling novel is an unforgettable page turner and necessary reading as it's Latin America's bestseller in the genre. You'll meet a tangled web of girlfriends who bring the drama, gossip, and more. We're just bummed this hasn't become a movie yet!

Marito (inspired by the author's own story) is working at his local Lima, Peru, radio station, toiling away the days of his youth, when his life is spiced up by two surprising visitors. This was once named The New York Times Book Review's book of the year for a reason; it will stick with you long after you finish.

Some of the best classics in Latin American lit are multigenerational narratives, and García's tome is no exception. Dreaming in Cuban starts with a family matriarch named Celia in the '30s and continues to 1980; just in time for travels to Havana, this book will give you a true sense of what living and growing up in Cuba in the 20th century was like.

All of Borges's many amazing short stories and fictions are together in one place — in English! — in this must-read collection, which includes everything from "The Library of Babel" to "The Secret Miracle" about a playwright living in Prague.

For anyone who ever struggled with identity — but especially any Latina who struggled with balancing multiple cultures — you'll relate passionately to this story of four Dominican sisters finding their way in the US.

Originally written in Portuguese, The Alchemist was translated into English and then further adapted into many, many languages and versions. It's beloved the world over for its many layers of lessons for the reader, as told by the journey of a young Andalusian shepherd in search of treasure in Egypt.

Yunior is the Pulitzer Prize winner's character in this rich, beautifully written novel that tells the story of several couples, spanning from the Dominican Republic all the way to Boston.

Picture a young woman who marries a man twice her age in the year after the Mexican revolution. Both scandalous and relatable, the English translation of Tear This Heart Out reads both like a romance novel and poetry.

While a group of police officers investigates a crime in a small Andean village, the main character, Tomás, shares racy, salacious stories of his own love and lust, which are told as the reader also follows the developments of the real-time crime in Death in the Andes.

Follow Esmeralda, the oldest of 11 children, from rural Puerto Rico to her new life in New York with her quirky mom in this memoir. Esmeralda navigates a new world and all the things that come with it (new surroundings, culture, and language) while also growing into a woman.

Díaz made a splash when he released his book of short stories, all narrated by young men, about Dominican immigrants and their families living both in the DR and US. It's mesmerizing — you'll likely want to reread many of the stories once you've finished.

The Marxist revolutionary penned a memoir of his trip via motorcycle around South America as a middle-class, 20-something med-school student. It was during this trip that Guevara saw the plight of the poor, for whom he would later dedicate his life to fighting for.

This lyrical, honest novel by a rising Latino author introduces us to three biracial Puerto Rican brothers figuring their way through adolescence, culture, and their relationship with their hardworking parents in Brooklyn.

Henríquez breathlessly brings to life the stories of immigrant Latino families in a small Delaware town, all trying to find their way through unfamiliar worlds. At the center? Not just a love story, but a teenage love story. Perfection.

This one is a mystical novel about a young girl working at a taco shop in a Mexican village. The daydreamer turns into an adventurer when she sets out on a journey to bring her father, and all the other men who left her town, back home.

Macabéa lives in the slums of Rio de Janeiro but dreams of a better life for herself (which, in her mind, means looking like Marilyn Monroe and drinking Coke). As this novel develops, we learn how Macabéa's unfortunate outer appearance is at odds with the beauty of what she has to offer on the inside — with a little bit of a love story to round it all out.

A former Cuban journalist is living in poverty in a post-Soviet Union recession, observing his surroundings with part fascination, part disgust. The raw look at Cuban poverty got this trilogy banned on the island, but it earned acclaim in the Spanish-speaking world.

This is another must-read from Alvarez, this time about another set of sisters, the Mirabals, during the tumultuous dictatorship of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. In the Time of the Butterflies is as important for its chronicle of family ties as it is for its view of a controversial time in history.

Last, but not least, of course: the book most widely regarded as García Márquez's best. Welcome to the imaginary South American town of Macondo, which is where the writer introduces us to the Buendía family with soulful prose and one incredible, unforgettable multigenerational narrative.