Episode Overview

Title: Mariana Enriquez’s new book connects her interest in cemeteries with Argentina’s past
Podcast: NPR's Book of the Day
Date: October 7, 2025
Host: Glenn Weldon (intro), Ayesha Rascoe (main interviewer)
Guest: Mariana Enriquez, Argentine author
Main Theme:
This episode features a conversation with Mariana Enriquez about her new nonfiction book, “Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave.” The book explores cemeteries around the world as sites of memory, history, class, trauma, and the supernatural, connecting Enriquez’s lifelong fascination with graveyards—rooted in both personal and political history in Argentina—with the universal human need to commemorate the dead.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of Enriquez’s Fascination with Cemeteries

• Childhood Gothic Roots

  • Enriquez describes herself as a lifelong goth: “I used to be a goth when I was young, like a goth from age 6” (02:04).
  • Early influences included reading Edgar Allan Poe, wearing black, and romanticizing darkness.

• Deeper, Historical Motivation

  • The trauma of Argentina’s “disappeared” during the 1970s dictatorship deeply shaped her interest:

    “A generation of people that were killed by the government and they don't have a grave. I realized that trauma... made me feel that a grave, a tombstone, it's something of comfort. It's a final thing in a good way.” (02:16—03:07)

2. The Ritual & Importance of Grieving

• Why Burials Matter
  • Enriquez underscores the cruelty of unresolved loss:

    “Because grieving is important. People don't go through that process. It's absolutely cruel... the only comfort we have is the comfort of grieving, of paying respects, of having a place to go and remember memory. It's a rite.” (03:31—03:53)

3. Cemeteries as Reflections of History and Class

• Visible Hierarchies of the Dead
  • Cemeteries mirror social stratifications:

    “In every cemetery you have the rich... with the marble, et cetera, the middle class and then the people on the ground... It's the same as life. That's what's very striking.” (04:18—05:16)

  • Enriquez cites colonial histories in Argentina and Australia: wealthy colonial families buried in marked graves, Indigenous burial sites often unmarked.

4. Encounters & Community Among Cemetery Visitors

• Shared Interests and Pilgrimages
  • She rarely meets fellow “cemetery enthusiasts,” but sometimes encounters “peregrines”:

    “People that go to see a special grave and you are going to visit the same person. And sometimes you recognize each other.” (05:24—05:52)

5. Ethics and Stories from the Paris Catacombs

• A Macabre Souvenir
  • Enriquez recounts (somewhat sheepishly) taking a bone from the Paris catacombs:

    “I said, okay, I'm going to take a little bone with me. I mean, I fully respect the people in the catacombs... but the security is not great.” (06:07—06:39)

• Respect for the Dead
  • She reflects on the line between respect and irreverence, viewing the dead as needing company, not just solemnity:

    “You can be a bit less solemn and respectful and go there and have some. Have a Coke and have a chat. There were people. They are people, and I think they would like a friend... I wouldn't like to be there lonely forever.” (06:55—07:47)

6. Personal Burial Wishes

• Desire to Rest in Recoleta Cemetery
  • Wants her ashes scattered in Buenos Aires’s aristocratic Recoleta cemetery, specifically at a grave marked, “there's nothing here, only dust and bones. Nothing.” (07:56—08:36)
  • Speaks to both the exclusivity of historical burial sites and her personal attitude toward death and remembrance.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On cemeteries as mirrors of inequality:

  “It's the same as life. That's what's very striking.” (05:16, Enriquez)

• On grieving and memory:

  “The only comfort we have is the comfort of grieving, of paying respects, of having a place to go and remember memory.” (03:43, Enriquez)

• On respecting the dead:

  “Sometimes I think... you can be a bit less solemn and respectful and go there and have some. Have a Coke and have a chat. ... I wouldn't like to be there lonely forever.” (07:03—07:47, Enriquez)

• On taking a souvenir from the catacombs:

  "I know, but when things are in books, you can always say, well, that's. It's a bit of fiction... But I went to the catacombs... and I said, okay, I'm going to take a little bone with me." (06:07–06:39, Enriquez)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:18] – Introduction to Mariana Enriquez and the theme of cemeteries as “full of life”
• [02:04] – Enriquez describes her gothic childhood and deeper roots of her cemetery fascination
• [03:31] – Discussion of why burials and finding the body matter, link to grief and memory
• [04:18] – Cemeteries as reflections of classism and colonial history
• [05:24] – Encounters with other cemetery-goers (“peregrines”)
• [06:07] – Story about taking a bone from the Paris catacombs and reflecting on respect for the dead
• [07:56] – Enriquez shares her personal burial wishes in Recoleta Cemetery

Tone & Language

The conversation is intimate, philosophical, and lightly humorous, blending Enriquez’s gothic sensibility and deep empathy for the disappeared and marginalized. The tone is reflective—with moments of sly irreverence and warmth, as when Enriquez jokes about the Paris catacombs and imagines chatting with the dead over a Coke.

Summary

In this episode, Mariana Enriquez guides listeners through the world’s cemeteries—revealing them as vivid, layered places resonant with history, loss, class, and memory. Her journey is personal and political, shaped by Argentina’s legacy of disappearance and her own embrace of the gothic. Through stories both thoughtful and darkly comic, Enriquez makes the case that how and where we mourn the dead says as much about the living as it does about the afterlife.