
We’re joined today by novelist and essayist Ingrid Rojas Contreras, whose new book The Man Who Could Move Clouds combines memoir with rich storytelling and an excavation of family and Colombian history. We discuss magical realism as a nonfiction genre, why it’s useful to believe in ghosts, and ask the question, what responsibility do we owe to our pasts?
The Stacks Book Club selection for August is How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee. We will discuss the book on August 31st with Ingrid Rojas Contreras.
LISTEN NOW
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript
Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

- The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Juan Carlos Onetti
- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- The Mountains Sing by Mai Phan Que Nguyen
- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- My Own Country by Abraham Verghese
- New York University (New York, NY)
- The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Ask The Stacks
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
- Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
- Diaries of a Terrorist by Christopher Soto
- Undocupoets
- Walt Whitman
- The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
- The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
- La Croix
- Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- “Ep. 60 Beloved by Toni Morrison – The Stacks Book Club (DaMaris B. Hill)” (The Stacks)
- DaMaris B. Hill
- Luster by Raven Leilani
- Love by Toni Morrison
- Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
- The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
- The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Connect with Ingrid: Instagram | Twitter | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe
To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.
To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.
The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.