Brenda Navarro Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Brenda Navarro is a successful published Mexican author.

Born in Mexico City on February 26, 1982, Brenda is not only a writer but an economist and a sociologist. She looks into topics and researches them thoroughly before writing about them. Some of these topics include digital rights and humanities, migration, women’s access to culture, and women’s labor.

She is a critically acclaimed author and one of the most celebrated in the Spanish language. She is known for her books Empty Houses and Eating Ashes, among other works. She has been the recipient of the CEGAL Prize as well as the Cálamo Prize. Brenda also was a finalist for the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Prize.

Brenda attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where she studied sociology and economy. She then pursued her Master’s degree on the topic of gender and citizenship and graduated from the University of Barcelona. She founded a group of writers that work to promote writing by women and called it ‘#EnjambreLiterario’.

Brenda originally lived in Mexico but today resides in Madrid.

Empty Houses is a novel by Brenda Navarro, translated by Sophie Hughes. Set in the middle of Mexico’s war on drugs, it was the winner of the 2019 English Pen Translation Award.

Daniel has gone missing a little after his third birthday. It was 3 months, 2 days, and 8 hours since his birthday that the child has gone missing. His mother is beyond upset and does not know what to do with herself. Her life starts unraveling and she feels haunted by the absence of her son while also contending with her own ambivalence and wondering whether she even wants him in the first place.

On the other side of Mexico City, in a working class neighborhood, another woman works to protect her stolen child. She has longed to be a mother so much but her life has been altered by the reality. Moving between the two different voices, this novel takes on the regrets, social pressures and desires of motherhood that are dealt with by the mother who ended up losing her child as well as the new mother who put everything on the line in order to take him.

This is an incredible look at contemporary Mexico, albeit in fictional form, and an exploration of what it means to be a mother among many more themes. It’s the fantastic debut of a new voice in fiction that you won’t want to miss.

Eating Ashes is a novel by Brenda Navarro, translated by Megan McDowell. The book goes by the title in Spanish of ‘Ceniza en la Boca’, which roughly means ‘Ash in the Mouth’. The book focuses on Ulysses syndrome, which is a chronic stress disorder that affects immigrants. It was adapted by Diego Luna for film in 2025.

This award winning novel is beautiful and poignant, tackling such tough topics but true to life subjects as migration, separation, and love that has been left behind.

A narrator that is not named has been adrift on their own in Barcelona. She is dealing with the death of her teen brother Diego, which haunts her. He was the little boy in Mexico that she did her best to help raise as their mother did her best to try and make a living in Spain. She still remembers so much about Diego, like he hated Madrid like she did and that he loved Vampire Weekend.

With his ashes in her hands, she must now go back to Mexico. She also has to deal with tons of memories coming back to her unbidden and recounts their lives up until the tragedy in detail. She remembers the first separation of the siblings when she went to Barcelona to make her own way, the loneliness that went along with their emigration, activism against labor abuse (threatened by her chaotic relationship with a lover) and the final confrontation with her brother.

Caught between heartbreak and anger over losing Diego, she puts together a story that is not only about alienation but about hope and courage in the darkest of times. Translated by Megan McDowell, the winner of the National Book Award, this book has tons of dark humor and takes on the struggles that migrants have while trying to build a quality life. This book was a sensation in Europe and has been well received by readers and critics alike. Check out Eating Ashes by Brenda Navarro to enjoy every delicious page for yourself!