Megan McDowell has translated books written by many contemporary South American and Spanish authors; her translations have been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Words Without Borders, and Vice, among other publications. Samanta Schweblin’s Seven Empty Houses (Riverhead Books) – another of the works translated by McDowell – is a collection of stories about seven strange houses. A person is missing, or a truth, or a memory; some rooms are enticing, some unmoored, others empty. But something always creeps back inside: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die. In each story, twists and turns unnerve and surprise.