Eating Ashes

The multi-award winning literary phenomenon, translated by Booker Prize-shortlisted Megan McDowell

'Stunning ...an energetic and harrowing new voice.' Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking

'One of the best-kept secrets of Mexican literature.' Fernanda Melchor, author of International Booker-Prize shortlisted Hurricane Season

'A tender story about how our families and places of origin shape and warp and rattle us, yet still resist comprehension. Brenda Navarro writes with wide open eyes and a relentless desire to understand.' Catherine Lacey, author of Pew

'A devastating story... Completely addictive .' Esquire

' A rising star of Latin American literature has written a novel that refuses to reduce grief to a scheduled tour through ennobling sorrows... Navarro is a major talent.' New York Times

'A vivid, visceral, and impactful novel... McDowell's translation is lyrical and powerfu l.' Booklist

'A sensitive portrayal of sibling love, grief, and the trauma of dislocation.' Kirkus (starred review)

' Furious and feline ... The first real masterpiece in our language in 2022.' El Mundo

'A writer who pulls us along with the irreparable violence of her writing in order to make us understand that everyone is free (or should be) to choose their own redemption. And nothing can be more fair and admirable in this life that is neither fair nor admirable.' Los Libreros Recomiendan

'Brenda Navarro writes masterfully and there is lots of work behind her two novels, but the best part about them is the identity of her characters, who feel complete and real to readers despite their emotional devastation. Social realism with the strength of fiction as a turbo-empathizer. An incredible novel.' La buena vida

'Raw, ingenious and addictive.' El País

'An author who knows that behind all affection lies hidden danger.' Yuri Herrera, author of Signs Preceding the End of the World

' Eating Ashes bravely addresses the pain of migration, but also the desire, contradictions and rage of a young woman trying to make sense of her brother's suicide... Moving, urgent and beautiful .' Mónica Ojeda, author of Jawbone

'It's already a sensation, sweeping major literary awards in Spain – early praise describes the author as a fierce, electrifying new voice.' Service95 , 'The 21 Must-Read Books to Have on Your Radar in 2026'

'There's much to admire in Brenda Navarro's Eating Ashes , but in our restless times, what is most outstanding in its pages is its refusal to pander to—or even locate—the construction of the Good Migrant… The defiance of Eating Ashes in betraying this trope is to insist on fearlessness.' Asymptote Journal

'Empathetic, almost humanist... Brenda Navarro's second novel, Eating Ashes , has all of the above elements… However, the book considers them through the eyes of those who have grown so desperate to escape the cycle of violence that they leave their home and, at least temporarily, their family in search of a happier, safer, more prosperous life. McDowell's translation is characteristically excellent throughout.' Los Angeles Review of Books

' Eating Ashes captures with striking precision how grief pulls you back to the past, over and over again. It's a spiky, electric novel full of love, loss and rage. I loved it.' Luiza Sauma, author of Flesh and Bone and Water

'Rippled through with flashes of dark humour, this is a heartbreaking examination of home, of loneliness and belonging, separation and loss, from a critically acclaimed Latin American novelist.' Auraist

' Eating Ashes [is] the devastatingly beautiful second novel by Mexican author Brenda Navarro, translated by Megan McDowell. [It] grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go.' Morning Star

BRENDA NAVARRO was born in Mexico City. She studied Sociology and Feminist Economics at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She has a Masters in Gender Studies from the University of Barcelona. In 2016 she founded #EnjambreLiterario, a group of authors who promote writing by women. Brenda is a scriptwriter and regular contributor to El Pais newspaper and other outlets. She lives in Madrid.

MEGAN McDOWELL has translated books by many contemporary South American and Spanish authors, and her translations have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's and The Paris Review . She lives in Chile.