New year, new books: What’s ahead for 2012

A new year brings a new batch of books to look forward to reading. Here’s a round-up of some upcoming titles by Latino authors coming in the first half of this year. Special thanks to The Millions website, where I got some of the tips.

• In February, Argentine writer César Aira will release Varamo, about a bureaucrat in Panama who unexpectedly writes an epic poem. The New Yorker ran an interesting interview with Aira’s translator, Chris Andrews, last year.

• Also in February, Benjamin Alire Saenz will release his young adult novel, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe about two teens who form an unlikely friendship.

• In April, Orange County Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano – known for his “Ask a Mexican!” column – will release Taco Nation, about America’s obsession with Mexican food. Sounds tasty.

• Roberto Bolaño must be the Tupac Shakur of Latino writers. He continues to publish books even after his death in 2003. His collection of stories, The Secret of Evil, will come out in April.

• Border Town: Crossing the Line is a Sweet Valley High-like series by Malín Alegría, author of the popular Estrella’s Quinceañera, about two teenage girls who live in fictional Dos Rios, Texas.

• Also in May, Sergio De La Pava’s A Naked Singularity will come out by the University of Chicago Press after a run as a self-published book. The comic novel focuses on a Brooklyn attorney who commits a crime.

• Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa will publish The Dream of the Celt, about Irish human rights activist Roger Casement, in June.