Books by Carmen Maria Machado

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from 15 September to 15 October every year in the United States. To mark the occasion, we’ve put together a reading list of books by Hispanic authors—both in the US and elsewhere—that have been recommended by our expert interviewees over the years.

The most unnerving and disturbing novels are often those books that leave room for interpretation and uncertainty. Here, the acclaimed Irish novelist Sue Rainsford selects five frightening works of literary horror, by authors who are masters of the unsettling implication—because nothing is quite so scary as what you dream up to fill the voids.