The most recommended books about Central America

No other book better encapsulates the evangelical spirit of neoliberal policies in the details of everyday life, including what it feels like to be arrested in the United States for being part of a gang, and ending up in a call center in Central America, only to be morally shamed for not working hard enough, as your corporate employer leverages the power of religion, and the threat of danger, to keep you trapped there. 

I think Robert Stone was one of the greatest American novelists of the recent era, a man with a profound concern for how political situations affect the individual. I love Stone’s ability to delve into complex situations.

This is fiction, unlike the last two recommendations mentioned above, and takes place in Central America during the Seventies. I love books about political situations, and I love novels set in other countries. Stone is a master of both.

He was also a humble, good man, though maybe I’m not completely objective because he provided a generous blurb for my first novel. I had the pleasure of spending a little time with him after my novel was published, and I found him to be brilliant, funny, modest, and just a fun person to be around.

Like Dostoevsky, he was able to delve into deep matters by telling a great story with amazing characters.… show more.

It is very rare for economists to write clearly and intelligibly for lay readers. It is even rarer that the complexities of the Central American economies are lucidly explained at both macro- and micro-levels, with a critique that is profound and alternatives that are viable. Although some things have changed in the last thirty years, it is simply not possible to understand contemporary Central America without knowledge of its previous political economy.

This epic adventure is, hands down, my favorite nonfiction book of all time.

Not only does it tell the harrowing story of the SS Central America’s sinking through the eyes of its survivors, but it also tells the equivalently riveting story the search and recovery effort. As the title explains, this is the richest wreck in history. But recovering all that wealth from depths previously unvisited, using technologies developed on the fly specifically for the recovery? Incredible.

I could not put it down and have returned to it many times. Drop whatever you’re doing and go read this book!

A journey on foot and by sea from Belize to Panama along the Mosquito Coast. Few roads penetrate this land of thick jungle, home to native Miskito, Rama, and Garifuna peoples, and at the time of his trip, rife with drug smugglers, CIA-sponsored rebels fighting the Sandinistas, and normal people living ordinary lives. It’s an unusual travel book about a little-known region, and it made me want to go there.

Charles Portis makes me want to be a better writer. I read this book and thought, “I didn’t know you were allowed to write like this.” 

The narrative is meandering but still poignant. The language sometimes soars and sometimes boils and sometimes crawls through the gutter. But there is a feeling of inevitability on every page, as though you were witnessing, with every line of dialogue or description, a shift in the earth, the creep of a glacier. You think: “There is no other way this book could be written.”  With each event, you think, “There is no other way this could have gone. How did he know?” 

Portis has the voice of a vulgar oracle, and I find myself penitent at his feet.

Without this book who would know that this popular fruit is in danger of disappearing because of a disease? 

Koeppel does a great job presenting the overlooked history of a fruit common to our grocery stores and corner markets. Most of the book focuses on the single variety of banana available everywhere and provides a good overview of different banana varieties used in Africa and Asia as local food staples.

The book also delves into how these varieties are threatened by plant diseases and provides a historical perspective of “Banana Republics,” controlled and manipulated by the powerful banana corporations in the early-mid 20th and 21st Cent. 

The book also illustrates the value of narrative non-fiction in presenting history and science at street level. As one reader remarked, “I learned more geography and science from this book than I did from any of my high school classes.”  

What prompted an upper-class, Catholic mother to become an armed revolutionary in Nicaragua?

The poet and writer Gioconda Belli shares her journey, including her time living in exile and her later break with the Sandinistas. She details how her experiences differed from her comrades because of her status as a woman and a mother and how they often underestimated and mistreated her because of her gender. Although Belli does not center faith as her primary motivation, she often references her Catholic upbringing and schooling.

Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, although a bit dated on some arguments, is a must-read book on the Archaeoastronomy of the Meso-American people. It includes a fascinating description of the role of astronomical alignments in places like Teotihuacan and the Aztec capital (modern Mexico City), as well as an in-depth exploration of Maya astronomy and of the Maya astronomically-driven architecture.

These days you can’t move for all the travel guides published on Central America, very few of which provide the contemporary tourist with much sense of the political conflicts in the region in the late 20th century. Today, it is important to hold at least a sense of that as one marvels at Maya ruins and enjoys the mountain trails and beaches that draw in visitors from around the world. But neither they nor coffee and bananas provide the principal source of revenue for most countries. That comes through remittances from family members who have emigrated to the USA for work. Torres Rivas, one of the region’s most distinguished scholars, makes a sober review in modulated language that has important things to say across the political spectrum although the author is firmly on the left.