Human Sacrifices
María Fernanda Ampuero

Translated by Frances Riddle

‘Fast, fierce and relentlessly brutal, these 12 stories are the literary equivalent of a feminist death metal album.’
– New York Times Best Horror Books of 2023

'María Fernanda Ampuero’s writing is pure horror and aesthetic joy. Human Sacrifices is a magnificent book that still haunts me to this day.'
– Mónica Ojeda, author of Jawbone

‘María Fernanda Ampuero’s Human Sacrifices wields the kind of brutal and explosive writing I crave to read. A barbed, deeply affecting collection of short fiction that brims with razor-sharp prose and uncompromising cruelty, this book will linger in the mind with the same excruciating ache of an invisible wound. Human Sacrifices is masterful and profoundly distressing, and something that I will read again and again.’
—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

A groundbreaking voice in contemporary Latin American literature, María Fernanda Ampuero confronts machismo, inequity, and violence in her latest short story collection. An undocumented woman answers a job posting only to find herself held hostage, a group of outcasts obsess over popular boys drowned while surfing, and two girls suspect sinister behavior from the missionaries lodging in their home.

Simultaneously terrifying and exquisite, Human Sacrifices is “tropical gothic” at its finest. Ampuero considers the decay and oppression beneath the surface of our humid and hostile world, where those on the margins must pay the price for the comfort and safety of the elite. These twelve stories contemplate the nature of exploitation and abuse, illuminating the realities of those society consumes and leaves behind.

Praise for María Fernanda Ampuero and Human Sacrifices

‘A stylish writer, but her stories are dangerous whirlpools, dragging the reader into their deadly undertow.'
– Daily Mail

'Bold and powerful, this collection of short stories plows right through the wound—of having a body, of being a woman, of remaining, against all odds, alive.'
– Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana’s Invincible Summer

‘Ampuero’s selection of words and choice unfolding of events are often so shocking that it takes a moment for the dizziness to pass before you can comprehend the meaning between her violent words. Human Sacrifices is as brutal as its name implies, with little mercy or means of escape.’
– The Big Issue

‘Stories that dazzle with formal experimentation.’
– Kirkus

'Ampuero’s literary voice is tough and beautiful at once: her stories are exquisite and dangerous objects.’
– Yuri Herrera, on Cockfight

'Brutal! Very intense.'
– Mariana Enríquez, on Cockfight

‘A shudderingly powerful collection of short stories.’
– Lucie McKnight Hardy, on Cockfight

‘Easily one of the most savage books I've ever read. This one burned all the way down and I fucking loved every second of it.’
– Matt Wesolowski, on Cockfight

About the Author

María Fernanda Ampuero is a writer and journalist born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 1976. Cockfight, her first book to be translated into English, was published by Influx Press in 2021.

About the Translator
Frances Riddle is a writer and translator based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Paperback ISBN: 9781914391224

Ebook ISBN: 9781914391231

Publication date: May 2023

Formats: Paperback / eBook