No Place to Bury the Dead

Borgo, Karina Sainz 

Inspired by real events, a searing novel of loss and resilience that illuminates the often-overlooked human dimension of the migrant crisis, re-imagining the border as a dreamlike purgatory bridging life and death.

In an unnamed Latin American country, a mysterious plague quickly spreads. Angustias Romero flees with her family, but their flight is cut tragically short when she loses both her children. Consumed by grief, she finds herself at the Third Country, an illegal borderland cemetery run by the larger-than-life Visitación Salazar

Here, Angustias is finally able to lay her children to rest and find refuge from the suffering and fear that has followed her. But as she begins to apprentice under Visitación, joining her mission to care for the dead, the cemetery becomes the focal point of a bitter land dispute with Alcides Abundio, the most feared landowner of the border. Caught in this power struggle, Angustias and Visitación—friends and sometimes rivals— defiantly stand their ground on a frontier where the law is dictated by violence; a surreal territory whose very nature blurs the boundaries between life and death.

Exploring what we are capable of and how far we will go when we have nothing to lose, Karina Sainz Borgo draws on her experience covering the Venezuelan migrant crisis to craft an unforgettable and urgent novel. Blending magical realism, western, and classical tragedy, No Place to Bury the Dead cements Borgo’s importance amongst the voices of contemporary Latin American literature.

Translated from the Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer