Vidhi's Leisure Space

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez (Translated by Megan McDowell)

mariana enriquez reading

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is a short story collection. The first lines therefore will be a collection of first lines of each story. This will be updated as I continue to complete more stories from the collection.

beg. (angelita unearthed)

My grandma didn’t like the rain, and before the first drops fell, when the sky grew dark, she would go out to the backyard with bottles and bury them halfway, with the whole neck underground; she believed those bottles would keep the rain away.

beg. (our lady of the quarry)

Silvia lived alone in a rented apartment of her own, with a five-foot-tall pot plant on the balcony and a giant bedroom with a mattress on the floor.

beg. (the cart)

Juancho was drunk that day.

beg. (the well)

Josefina remembered the trip - the heat, the crowded Renault 12 - like it was just a few days ago, and not back when she was six, just after Christmas, under the stifling January sun.