Review: "All That Dies in April" by Mariana Travacio

All That Dies in April by Mariana Travacio
Translated from the Spanish by Will Morningstar and Samantha Schnee
Published October 2026 via World Editions
★★★★

High in the mountains of Argentina, there is very little hope left. Lina and Relicario's son left years ago, looking for work; the region has dried up, and there is little work and little greenery and little hope for anything different in the future. Lina wants to leave, to seek her son and a different future. Relicario cannot imagine leaving their dead behind.

This is the first in the series of translated works, one for each letter of the alphabet. Argentina is A, Belgium is B, China is C, and the rest remains to be seen (as does what the series will do when it gets to W and X! At least with W there's the disputed territory of Western Sahara, but I'm not sure where you'd go with X). I love the concept; I've long liked the idea of doing a round-the-world book tour and reading a book from every country, but unfortunately, I've also met myself and am aware that I'm bad at that sort of challenge. There are just too many other things I want to read to lock myself into ~200 books based on location.

All That Dies in April makes for something of a curiosity of a book, drifting dream-like in places and all too aware of human frailty in others. Lina is too practical to hold on to all that she has ever known, while Relicario carries on soothing conversations with the dead. She's content to adapt to the unknown, I think, while he's content to adapt to a world withering around him, as long as it's the world he is familiar with.

Later in the book, perspectives shift, and I had a harder time holding on to who was speaking and what their content was. This turned the book from a 4-star to a 3.5-star read for me, but still a very engaging read. As the book goes on, the cracks lower down, where the grass is green and the living is relatively easier, start to show. The ending is fairly abrupt, but in a way that is fitting for the book.

I don't want to commit to ~26 unknown books (and am not all that interested in the Belgian or Chinese books picked for the series), but you can bet that I'll be keeping an interested eye on what comes next. (And: If you looked at a list of countries in alphabetical order, which countries would you choose to read books from?)

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.