Books From Around the World (YA): South America

It’s often interesting to get a different perspective on the world. Here are some books set in some far-flung places – and some places close to home – grouped by continent/large body of water with islands in it. The books on this list are (mostly) written by authors from the countries they are about, and in many cases have been translated into English from their mother tongues (the book we’ve chosen for Madagascar, Return to the enchanted island by Johary Ravaloson, is only the second book to have ever been translated from Malagasy into English!).

Not all of the books are in the Young Adult collection, but we’ve tried to make sure that they all at least feature kids or teens in prominent places in the story. Our eventual goal is to have at least one book for every country in the world! Help us out by sending in recommendations if you’ve found one we’ve missed!

This list contains books written by authors from South America. Check out our lists for authors from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, and Oceania for even more recommendations!

Updated June 19, 2024
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Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Love in English
Andreu, Maria E
Paper Book
A fresh, joyful YA novel that is layered with themes of immigration, cultural identity, and finding your voice in any language.  Sixteen-year-old Ana is a poet and a lover of language. Except that since she moved to New Jersey from Argentina, she can barely find the...
Argentina | Spanish-Argentinian-American author
Beatnik Buenos Aires
Arandojo, Diego
Paper Book
Argentine creators Diego Arandojo (writer) and Facundo Percio (illustrator) come together to weave the rich tapestry of this mecca of artistic expression. Arandojo's staccato dialogue lends a poetic quality to these lively, often mysterious characters, while Percio's raw and expressive charcoal...

Argentina | Argentinian author and illustrator

All my goodbyes
Dimo?pulos, Mariana
Paper Book
This highly acclaimed contemporary Argentinian novel is the first in Giramondo's Literature of the South series, featuring innovative fiction and non-fiction by writers of the southern hemisphere. It is translated from the Spanish by Australian translator Alice Whitmore. ...

Argentina | Argentinian author

Furia
Me?ndez, Yamile Saied
Ebook
A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK Recipient of the 2021 Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Medal One of BuzzFeed's Must-Read YA Books of 2020 A Best Book of the Year: Cosmopolitan * Kirkus Reviews * SheReads *...

Argentina | Argentinian-American author

Red Moon
Trillo, Carlos
Paper Book
Published between 1998 and 2000, and set in a mythical medieval world, Red Moon follows the fortunes of Antolin, a young juggler, as he attempts to free the Land of Burien from the evil Lord of Leona. In a swashbuckling adventure that will remind readers of The Never-Ending Story (Puffin, 2009), a...

Argentina | Argentinian author-illustrator

The fat man from La Paz : contemporary fiction from Bolivia
Santos, Rosario.
Paper Book
The twenty stories collected here offer not only a comprehensive look at the variety and invention of Bolivian literature, but also provide much information about the heart and soul of the country. The most comprehensive collection of modern Bolivian literature to be published in English, the book...

Bolivia | Bolivian authors

Affections
Hasbu?n, Rodrigo
Paper Book
A haunting novel about an unusual family's breakdown--set in South America during the time of Che Guevara and inspired by the life of Third Reich cinematographer Hans Ertl--from the literary star Jonathan Safran Foer calls, "a great writer." Inspired by real events, Affections is...

Bolivia | Bolivian author

Salt and sugar
Carvalho, Rebecca
Ebook

Brazil | Brazilian-American author

The alchemist
Coelho, Paulo
Paper Book
Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of...

Brazil | Brazilian author

The shape of bones
Galera, Daniel
Paper Book
From one of Brazil's foremost literary voices comes a gripping, visceral new novel about youth, power and the nature of manhood A man rises at 5 a.m. and leaves his home. He does not wake his wife or child to bid them goodbye. He starts his car - an SUV filled with survival gear - but...

Brazil | Brazilian author

Here the whole time
Martins, Vitor
Paper Book
"I read this in one sitting, laughing out loud and cheering for Felipe to follow his heart. I love this book!" --Rainbow Rowell, New York Times bestselling author of Carry On and Wayward Son Felipe can't wait for winter break: Finally, he'll get some time away...

Brazil | Brazilian author

Two brothers
Moon, Fa?bio
Paper Book
Twin brothers Omar and Yaqub may share the same features, but they could not be more different. After a brutally violent exchange between the young boys, Yaqub, 'the good son,' is sent from his home in Brazil to live with relatives in Lebanon, only to return five years later as a virtual stranger to...

Brazil | Brazilian author-illustrator

Listen, beautiful Ma?rcia
Quintanilha, Marcello
Paper Book
Marcia is a nurse in a hospital near Rio and lives in a favela with her boyfriend, Aluisio, and her daughter, Jaqueline, whom she had very young with another man. Jaqueline, a troubled young adult, makes life difficult for her mother and Aluisio rebelliously hangs out with members of a neighborhood...

Brazil | Brazilian author-illustrator

Where we go from here
Rocha, Lucas
Paper Book
An absorbing debut novel about three gay friends in Brazil whose lives become intertwined in the face of HIV, perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Bill Konigsberg.Ian has just been diagnosed with HIV.Victor, to his great relief, has tested negative.Henrique has been living with HIV for the past...

Brazil | Brazilian author

I lived on Butterfly Hill
Agosi?n, Marjorie.
Paper Book
An eleven-year-old's world is upended by political turmoil in this searing novel from an award-winning poet, based on true events in Chile. Celeste Marconi is a dreamer. She lives peacefully among friends and neighbors and family in the idyllic town of Valparaiso, Chile--until...

Chile | Chilean-American author

City of the beasts
Allende, Isabel.
Paper Book
An ecological romance with a pulsing heart, equal parts Rider Haggard and Chico Buarque - one of the world's greatest and most beloved storytellers broadens her style and reach with a Amazonian adventure story that will appeal to all ages. Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the chance...

Chile | Chilean author

Kingdom of the golden dragon
Allende, Isabel.
Paper Book
From one of the world's best-loved storytellers comes a magical novel of adventure and discovery - the sequel to Isabel Allende's bestselling 'City of the Beasts'. Fifteen-year-old Alex Cold, his friend Nadia and his eccentric grandmother Kate embark on a journey to a mysterious, hidden...

Chile | Chilean author

Forest of the pygmies
Allende, Isabel.
Paper Book
From one of the world's best-loved storytellers comes a magical novel of adventure and discovery Alexander Cold knows all too well his grandmother Kate is never far from an adventure. When International Geographic commissions her to write an article about the first elephant-led safaris in...

Chile | Chilean author

Space invaders : a novel
Ferna?ndez, Nona
Paper Book
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature A dreamlike evocation of a generation that grew up in the shadow of a dictatorship in 1980s Chile Space Invaders is the story of a group of childhood friends who, in adulthood, are preoccupied...

Chile | Chilean author

Bad vibes
Fuguet, Alberto.
Paper Book
A Latin American Catcher in the Rye--set amidst the political turmoil of the 1980s in Santiago, Chile. Living in an atmosphere of existential malaise caused by the wretched excess and moral decay he sees all around him, teenager Matias finds his basic trust in what is constant starting to come...

Chile | Chilean author

What remains : personal and political histories of Colombia
Aguirre, Camilo
Paper Book
What Remains is an innovative graphic novel that weaves documentary and memoir forms to capture the sociopolitical fabric of Colombia, spanning 200 years. Camilo Aguirre dips in and out of pivotal historical periods, all while skillfully interweaving family histories and anecdotes of students...

Colombia | Colombian author

Amazona
Canizales
Paper Book
This socially conscious thriller from graphic novelist Canizales examines the injustices of his home country in a stark, distinctive style. Andrea, a young Indigenous Colombian woman, has returned to the land she calls home. Only nineteen years old, she comes to mourn her lost child,...

Colombia | Colombian author-illustrator

Fruit of the drunken tree : a novel
Rojas Contreras, Ingrid
Paper Book
"One of the most dazzling and devastating novels I've read in a long time...Readers of Fruit of the Drunken Tree will surely be transformed." --San Francisco Chronicle "Simultaneously propulsive and poetic, reminiscent of Isabel Allende...Listen...

Colombia | Colombian author

Oblivion : a memoir
Abad Faciolince, He?ctor Joaqui?n.
Paper Book
Oblivionis a heartbreaking, exquisitely written memorial to the author's father, Héctor Abad Gómez, whose criticism of the Colombian regime led to his murder by paramilitaries in 1987. Twenty years in the writing, it paints an unforgettable picture of a man who followed his conscience and...

Colombia | Colombian author

The revolutionaries try again
Cardenas, Mauro Javier
Ebook
Extravagant, absurd, and self-aware, The Revolutionaries Try Again plays out against the lost decade of Ecuador's austerity and the stymied idealism of three childhood friends--an expat, a bureaucrat, and a playwright--who are as sure about the evils of dictatorship as they are...

Ecuador | Ecuadorian author

The inheritance of Orqui?dea Divina : a novel
Co?rdova, Zoraida
Paper Book

Ecuador | Ecuadorian-American author

Children of paradise : a novel
D'Aguiar, Fred
Paper Book
Acclaimed novelist, playwright, and poet Fred D'Aguiar has been short-listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize in poetry for Bill of Rights, his narrative poem about the Jonestown massacre, and won the Whitbread First Novel Award for The Longest Memory. In this beautifully imagined work of literary...

Guyana | British-Guyanese author

In the key of Nira Ghani
Deen, Natasha
Paper Book
A Guyanese girl must find the balance between her parents' "old world" expectations and traditions while pursuing her dream of being a great trumpeter in this contemporary, coming-of-age story. Nira Ghani has always dreamed of becoming a musician. Her Guyanese...

Guyana | Guyanese author

Zama
Di Benedetto, Antonio
Paper Book
An NYRB Classics Original First published in 1956, Zama is now universally recognized as one of the masterpieces of modern Argentine and Spanish-language literature.   Written in a style that is both precise and sumptuous, weirdly archaic and powerfully novel,...

Paraguay | Argentinian author writing about colonial Paraguay in the late 18th century

I the supreme
Roa Bastos, Augusto
Paper Book

Paraguay | Paraguayan author

War by candlelight : stories
Alarco?n, Daniel
Paper Book
"[Alarcón's] tales, set largely in the hardscrabble world of Lima, build with all the power of a Flannery O'Connor story: a gentle enough start, an innocent setting, and before long the reader is adrift in a drama that defies the imagination--with characters that live long after the book is...

Peru | Peruvian author

Death in the Andes
Vargas Llosa, Mario
Paper Book
Part-detective novel and part political allegory,a work of broad sweep, powerful narrative drive, and keen insight into Peru, one of Latin America's most fascinating and complex countries.

Peru | Peruvian author

Lulu and Milagro's search for clarity
Velez, Angela (Author of young adult fiction)
Paper Book
Booksmart meets Never Have I Ever in this Latinx road trip adventure--a big-hearted, voice-driven YA about two sisters who couldn't be more different, but become begrudging partners on their school's cross-country college trip--from debut author Angela Velez. Perfect for fans of...

Peru/USA | Peruvian-American author

The house of paper
Domi?nguez, Carlos Mari?a.
Paper Book
Bluma Lennon, distinguished professor of Latin American literature at Cambridge, is hit by a car while crossing the street, immersed in a volume of Emily Dickinson's poems. Several months after her untimely demise, a package arrives for her from Argentina-a copy of a Conrad novel, encrusted in...

Uruguay | Uruguayan-Argentine author

The invisible mountain
De Robertis, Carolina.
Paper Book
A gripping and lyrical story--at once expansive and lush with detail--this debut novel is a deeply intimate exploration of the search for love and authenticity, power and redemption, in the lives of three women, and a penetrating portrait of a small, tenacious nation, Uruguay, shaken in the gales of...

Uruguay | Uruguayan-American author

It would be night in Caracas : a novel
Sainz Borgo, Karina
Paper Book
As seen in the New York Times Book Review  Told with gripping intensity, It Would be Night in Caracas chronicles one woman's desperate battle to survive amid the dangerous, sometimes deadly, turbulence of modern Venezuela and the lengths she must go to secure her future. ...

Venezuela | Venezuelan author

Memories of Altagracia
Garmendia, Salvador.
Paper Book
From one of Venezuela’s leading writers, Memories of Altagracia depicts the eccentricities of rural life through the eyes of a small boy. Garmenida’s luminous prose reflects the wonder of this world, a world that becomes increasingly harsh as childhood slips by.

Venezuela | Venezuelan author


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