If you enjoy reading books by Valeria Luiselli then you might also like the following authors:
Alejandro Zambra is a Chilean author known for a minimalist, introspective writing style that captures subtle emotional landscapes and everyday realities.
His novella The Private Lives of Trees gently tells the story of a man waiting through the night for his wife to return home, exploring themes of family, memory, and quiet anxiety with warmth and sensitivity.
Argentine writer Samantha Schweblin crafts suspenseful, unsettling narratives that blend realism with something surreal and dark beneath the surface.
Her novel Fever Dream pulls readers into an eerie scenario revolving around motherhood, environmental crisis, and mysterious illness, leaving lingering questions long after the final page.
Yuri Herrera, a Mexican author, tells powerful stories that explore borders—geographical, social, and emotional.
His style skillfully combines lyrical prose with gritty realism, as seen in his novel Signs Preceding the End of the World, which follows a young woman's journey across the U.S.-Mexico border, examining themes of identity, migration, and transformation.
Fernanda Melchor, from Mexico, writes unflinching, raw fiction highlighting violence, poverty, and social injustice.
Her novel Hurricane Season immerses readers in a Mexican village's communal tensions through intense, vivid prose, revealing harsh truths about gender, sexuality, and the cycle of violence.
Chilean author Lina Meruane creates emotionally charged and psychologically intense stories that often delve into bodily experiences, identity, and illness.
In her autobiographical novel Seeing Red, she vividly describes a writer's sudden loss of sight and the impacts it has on her relationships and sense of self, making it a powerful exploration of intimacy and dependency.
If you enjoy how Valeria Luiselli explores memory, displacement, and the search for meaning, Roberto Bolaño should be on your list. This Chilean author's novels often blend mystery with a literary puzzle, revealing layers of hidden histories beneath their surface.
His novel The Savage Detectives captures a youthful energy, tracing the adventures and wanderings of two young poets and the struggles of a literary community on Mexico City's fringes.
César Aira is known for short, imaginative books that embrace unpredictability and humor. His novels are inventive, playful, and experimental, often starting on familiar ground before spinning wildly into fantastic, surreal places.
Aira's novella An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter is a great example, blending imaginative storytelling, historical fiction, and philosophical reflection, perfect if you like Luiselli's openness to experimentation.
Mariana Enríquez writes dark, striking fiction set in modern Argentina, illuminating the political and social tensions that run beneath daily life.
She intertwines supernatural elements and vivid, unsettling imagery, similar to Luiselli's ability to unsettle and challenge readers.
Her short story collection Things We Lost in the Fire demonstrates her talent for exploring societal anxieties through narratives that linger beneath the skin.
If you're drawn to Luiselli's subtle attention to interior lives and the fragility of everyday existence, Guadalupe Nettel offers something related but distinct. Her prose shows how strange ordinary life can be, often highlighting quiet discoveries about human behavior.
Her novel The Body Where I Was Born is a deeply honest tale of childhood, identity, and self-discovery, marked by an introspection rooted in vivid sensations and emotional truth.
Much like Luiselli, Carmen Maria Machado masterfully blends genres to explore issues like identity, trauma, and women's experiences. Her storytelling often dances between realism, horror, and magical realism, revealing how boundaries between genres—and realities—are never fixed.
Machado's short story collection Her Body and Other Parties contains powerful feminist narratives that depict the complexity and strangeness of women's lives, exploring ghostly fears and desires in refreshingly unexpected ways.
Jenny Offill writes with sharp wit and emotional honesty. Her novels often capture the small, unnoticed moments of daily life and relationships, examining modern anxieties with humor and insight.
Readers who enjoyed Luiselli's reflective and thoughtful style will appreciate Offill's approach to storytelling. Try Dept. of Speculation, a moving novel that explores marriage, parenthood, and identity through short, vivid prose fragments.
Rachel Cusk has a style characterized by intellectual clarity and precise, unadorned language. She often explores themes of family dynamics, identity, and the complexities of relationships, carefully observing human interactions.
Like Valeria Luiselli, she has a talent for examining everyday scenes in a way that reveals deeper truths. Her novel Outline offers readers fascinating insights into human connection, memory, and the power of storytelling.
Ben Lerner is known for novels that blend personal experience with cultural commentary. He reflects on art, identity, and the contradictions of modern life, capturing these themes in thoughtful, often humorous prose.
Lerner's style and themes share Luiselli's openness in mixing lived experiences with ideas. Check out 10:04, a richly layered narrative exploring friendship, art, and contemporary anxieties.
Teju Cole's writing combines style and depth, mixing philosophical reflection with observations about city life, travel, and identity. His works often contemplate cross-cultural experiences and the subtleties of storytelling itself, similar to Luiselli's meditative explorations.
Try Open City, a novel that follows a Nigerian-German psychiatrist wandering through the streets of New York City, offering reflective insights into our complicated global identities.
Sheila Heti writes in an inventive, conversational voice about intimate personal experiences, creativity, and identity. Her approach blurs the lines between fiction, memoir, and philosophical inquiry, similar to the playful yet reflective style Luiselli readers enjoy.
How Should a Person Be? is a thoughtful novel exploring friendship, art, and self-discovery, making Heti an excellent choice for readers craving introspection and honesty.