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Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

Central America & Caribbean

• Mexico
• Central America
• Caribbean

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  Guatemala by Rough Guide

  Price: £14.99    Add to Basket

  One of the very few guides to Guatemala, this Rough Guide offers reliable practical information with well-written cultural and historical background.

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  A Visit to Don Otavio by Sybille Bedford

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  A classic of travel writing, Sybille Bedford's account of the uncomfortable journeys, the desolate expanses of desert and rich, deep jungles of Mexico, is charming, poetic and colourful.

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  The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  A riotous, sexy and often hilarious novel about visceral realist poets in Mexico City in the 1970s. The first part of the novel is the diary of 17 year-old Juan Garcia Madero and how he meets the leaders of a poetic movement, Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano, the second part consists of interviews with a series of people who met Belano and Lima on their journey across Mexico, Europe and Africa. A breath of fresh air to South American literature and highly recommended.

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  Central America and Mexico by Footprint

  Price: £16.99    Add to Basket

  Footprint guides are the best practical guides to Central and South America, combining reliable logistical information, with some refreshing recommendations and an adequate, well-written cultural and historical background. Includes chapters on Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

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  The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie

  Price: £7.99    Add to Basket

  Rushdie's only piece of reportage, this is a vivid account of a journey he made to Nicaragua during the summer of 1986.

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  The Violins of Saint-Jacques by Patrick Leigh Fermor

  Price: £7.99    Add to Basket

  An elderly French woman recounts tales of her childhood on the Caribbean island of Saint-Jacques in the early 20th century. Vivid, thoughtful and melancholic.

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  Cuba by Rough Guides

  Price: £13.99    Add to Basket

  A fantastic all-round guide with good contextual reading supporting exhaustive practical information. Maps are decent on the whole, though colour photography is sparse. We found this to be the volume that comes closest to covering adequately the difficulties of exhanging and obtaining currency currently prevalent on the island.

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  Havana & the Best of Cuba by Time Out

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  A first-rate guide to the city's many highlights with its finger firmly on the pulse. Maps are clear and well-annotated and colour photographs abound. Be warned that the 'Best of Cuba' element is mostly restricted to day-trips from the capital.

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  The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

  Price: £6.99    Add to Basket

  This magnificent fable requires no introduction. Suffice to say its grace and power are undeniable and if you have not yet read it then doing so in Havana, where it was written and set, is an excellent idea.

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  Havana Blue by Leonardo Padura

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  Following the melancholy but implacable Lieutenant Mario Conde, Padura's series of Havana crime thrillers have won him worldwide acclaim, and rightly so. In this marvellously atmospheric first installment Conde must shake himself out of his New Year stupor to investigate the murder of a successful businessman who once stole the heart of the girl Conde himself loved.

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  Havana: Autobiography of a City by Alfredo Jose Estrada

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  Passionate and knowledgeable, Estrada has written a stunning portrait of the city, covering everything from the arrival of Columbus and his crew to Hemingway's favourite end of the bar at La Bodeguita. Of great interest regardless of whether one is planning a trip, but crucial in that event.

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  Cuba Confidential: The Extraordinary Tragedy of Cuba, its Revolution and its Exiles by Ann Louise Bardach

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  An insightful work of investigative journalism in which Bardach exposes the compelling truth of the ongoing, bloody vendetta between Miami and Havana that has persisted since Castro's rise to power. Drawing on first-hand accounts from both sides, and from both victims and perpetrators, this is a provocative portrait of Cuba that exposes some of the unglamorous realities behind its charming facade.