I enjoyed the beauty of the cemeteries and graveyards that came through Mariana Enriquez's writing and I appreciated how reverently she described her journeys. I did feel uncomfortable that a piece of bone was taken from the catacombs as this spoiled some of the magic of the book for me - the idea that a resting place had been disturbed. Overall, it was a beautiful book and perfect for a quiet rainy evening.

In Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave, Mariana Enriquez transforms the act of cemetery-wandering into something intimate, unsettling, and strangely luminous. This is not a travelogue in the traditional sense—it’s a meditation on grief, colonial violence, and the haunting beauty of places where the living and the dead quietly coexist.

From the moss-covered gravestones of Highgate to the hidden Aboriginal burial ground on Rottnest Island, Enriquez guides us with journalistic precision and gothic flair. Her prose is rich with shadow and texture, each site a portal into layered histories and personal obsessions. The graves of Elvis and Karl Marx, voodoo traces, catacombs, and mournful sculptures become more than curiosities—they are emotional landmarks in a journey that is as much internal as geographical.

What lingers is the sense of reverence and unease. Enriquez writes with a voice that is both fiercely intelligent and deeply felt, and Megan McDowell’s translation preserves that eerie lyricism. This is a book for those who find beauty in decay, meaning in ritual, and solace in the quiet company of the forgotten.

A masterful blend of memoir, essay, and ghost-lit travel writing—elegant, evocative, and unforgettable

Thank you to Mariana Enriquez, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I have read quite a lot of cemetery history-cum-travelogue-cum-memoir style books, and this was by far the most disappointing. Rather than being a balanced amalgamation of these genres, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave is a series of anecdotes about Enriquez's friends, travels, concert-going, and sex life told over the background of various cemeteries around the world. Enriquez seems to have very little respect for the cemeteries and burial grounds she visits, and seems to think herself superior to all other cemetery visitors - when, in reality, she doesn't seem to know much more about these cemeteries than could be found through a simple google search. I was looking for a good book about cemeteries, with some personal stories and interesting facts, but this really was not it.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. I’ve been taken on a virtual trip around many famous cemeteries, and learned more about the famous people buried therein.
The stories the Author tells of these people and places are both fascinating and even horrifying. Who knew about the grave plundering that went on and actually, seems as if it may still!
I read this book over two nights because it was so very interesting. Not only because of the well known and famous gravesites visited but the histories and customs of the countries which hold them.
Amongst all of these stories of cemeteries and their dead, we hear of one man, living alone in an abandoned village in Villa Epecuén, Buenos Aires. Having seen this man on a tv documentary, it was fascinating to read more about him. It seems he’s quite the celebrity in his own way and living the life he has chosen, albeit in a dead village.
This is a book very well worth reading. It’s not macabre, it’s informative and interesting.

I love wandering around old cemeteries and churchyards, looking at the weather worn headstones, the tombs and vaults, and wondering about the souls who occupy them, the lives they led, and what brought about their demise. 🪦
That's morbid, I hear you cry. Perhaps, but we all have our foibles. 🪦
As soon as I saw the premise for this book I knew I had to read it, and I was not disappointed. Someone is Walking on Your Grave is basically a tour guide of cemeteries that Mariana Enriquez has visited over the years, from Europe to Australia to South America and North America. She's been to Greyfriars in Edinburgh, and Highgate in London. She's been in the catacombs in Paris. She's been in cemeteries in New Orleans and Savannah. 🪦
This isn't just a list of cemeteries and their famous occupants, though. Mariana shares lots of interesting historical background. Stories of love, of war, of body snatching, of repatriation. 🪦
I loved this book. I love that Greyfriars Bobby, the Highgate vampire, the vampire Léstat, and the Sedlec Ossuary were mentioned. And I loved learning that a small area of Patagonia was colonised by..... the Welsh. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🖤🪦
Thanks to Granta Publications and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

Mariana Enriquez’s Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave is a fascinating collection of essays about cemeteries around the world, first published in Spanish in 2013 and now available in English translation. Enriquez visits graveyards from Buenos Aires to London, Paris, and beyond, blending travel writing, history, and cultural commentary with her distinctive gothic sensibility. She uncovers the legends, tragedies, and forgotten stories tied to these spaces, showing how cemeteries reflect both the living and the dead.

What makes the book stand out is Enriquez’s ability to turn her personal fascination into vivid, atmospheric storytelling. She writes with a mix of curiosity, respect, and dark humor, making each essay both informative and haunting. Rather than being morbid, the book reveals cemeteries as places of memory, ritual, and human connection. For readers interested in history, folklore, or gothic literature, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave is a rich and unforgettable exploration—and a perfect showcase of Enriquez’s unique voice.

‘Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave’, by Mariana Enriquez,(translated by Megan McDowell), is a fascinating collection of individual memories,reflections ,anecdotes and opinions on various cemeteries around the world .There is also a good amount of interesting historical information attached to some of the stories.It is easy to sometimes feel that those who admit to enjoying visiting cemeteries are a little bit morbid and should maybe be avoided. However this book details beautifully the way different cultures show various diverse attitudes and relate to the presence of the dead.Sometimes respectfully and in other places and times not so much.
As in many travelogue type collections, there are pieces that stand out and leave the greatest impression.For me the personal highlights are
‘Death and the Maiden’,(Genoa,Italy),’The Moon over Bourbon Street’,(New Orleans,Louisiana,United States), and ‘The Secret Commonwealth’,(Edinburgh,Scotland,United Kingdom).
It feels therein that almost familiar landscapes of the dead are seen with an approach that is fresh and thought provoking.
Overall this selection of graveyard tales is well worth making the effort to take some unique journeys with the author’s shared insights and perspectives.
Thank you to NetGalley and Granta Publications ,for an Advance Readers Copy.

This is a different type of memoir, one that only Mariana Enríquez can write. I would highly recommend if you’re a fan of her works, just to get a deeper understanding of her fascination with the macabre. I’ve only read her short stories so far and loved most of them mainly because of the writing. Here I found the writing style very far from her fictional one, because it’s more like a travel vlog narrative. We are walking through variety of cemeteries, the atmosphere is solidly built, but the details and the personal stories were only glanced over, which made me think there was not a lot of research put into this. There are some factorials presented in a dry way, and some sections that were not descriptive enough.
This book could’ve been more enjoyable if there was more photography of the monuments and the tombs. There was kind of an interactive part with this book, because I was constantly googling the sites she visited and it felt like doing an assignment with my project partner, which was a fun part. But if we had more photos of them, I would’ve appreciated it more. The most interesting elements for me were the burial rituals all over the world. This book made me want to visit most of the cemeteries. As a negative I would say that there were big chunks of boring parts, mostly around the author’s acquaintances and daily routines. Overall, it was an interesting read, I’m not sure how to rate it though. I’m not a huge non-fiction reader, but as a fan of the author’s works, I appreciated this novel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Granta Publications for providing me with the ARC.

This started off promising, the author clearly has a morbid curiosity of cemeteries and expresses her fascination in a fun and informative way. I enjoyed learning more about New Orleans and Marie Laveau, how Eva Peron’s body was passed around like a pass the parcel, the Highgate Vampire and how JK Rowling chose the names of her characters. When the author recalled stealing a bone from the catacombs in France however, she lost me. I found this to be immature and disrespectful, taking a piece of a person from their final resting place, treating it like a memento. Other readers seem to have found it exciting so maybe it’s a marmite moment.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Somebody is Walking on your Grave by Mariana Enriquez

A very different book , but fascinating nonetheless .
I've always enjoyed visiting graveyards and reading the headstones of those not with their lives ones anymore . Some give a big insight to their lives & even history .
It was very interesting to read about how different cultures bury their death .

Beautiful book. A memoir inside a stroll through the world’s graveyard. I personally love to walk a graveyard and read the inscriptions. Loss and love in one place.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this !

Graves have always fascinated me due to the history around each one and how some are so elaborate, and others are just simple yet beautiful. This book helped me reach places I wish to visit. Brilliant.

Somebody Is Walking On Your Grave is a nonfiction book from Mariana Enriquez, whose short story collections and the novel Our Share of Night have previously been translated into English. The book explores her visits to a range of graveyards around the world, blending a travelogue, personal memoir, and history as she explores these places and what took her to their locations.

I liked the way she blends travelogue and personal essay, capturing the excitement of visiting new places (it's fun that a few of them are so she can see bands in that country) as well as her clearly deep interest in graveyards and cultures around death in different places. As a fan of Enriquez's writing, it was fascinating to find out more about her and travel with her on a few wild adventures (stealing a bone from the Paris catacombs the most thrilling). Some of the historical context I found more interesting than others—New Orleans was maybe my favourite—but it was good to find out more about not just the places she visited, but the people either interred there or connected to it.

Books about cemeteries are usually rather dry and factual, recording historic graves and their inhabitants. Mariana Enriquez takes a different approach and imbues her cemeteries travelogue with personal recollections. She starts with how she fell in love with these mysterious and beautiful final resting places. A fleeting and bittersweet romance introduced her to the spectacular and voluptuous architecture of Italian cemeteries. The romance was short lived after a brief spat. She thought he might turn up at the train station the next day, but he never did. The train takes Enriquez away and into a fascinating exploration of how different countries commemorate the dead, with many more anecdotes.

First up, I finished this book last night and i'm obsessed!!!! In her unique voice Mariana Enriquez tells her stories about graveyards all around the world - places she visited, heard from, wants to see and all about their history, haunting tales and more. "Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave - My Cemetery Journeys " was translated by Megan McDowell. We start into the book with Enriquez story about her visiting Genoa, Italy - more specific, about her time at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno. She melts historical facts and information about the places she visits perfectly with her own time spent there, her memories and feelings. A pure and raw story about obsession, rock and roll and longing for something untouchable. Her journey spreads over the whole world from Argentina to Australia, Germany to Cuba and the UK and my personal favorite section - her time spent in Prague and her cemetery encounters at the most magical and haunted place. I love this book so much and can not wait to talk about more once it's been published.

Fiction writers write the best non-fiction. Mariana Enriquez's personal interest in cemeteries is infectious, and it was fascinating to read about the real life experiences/interests that inform the aesthetics of her fiction. My favourite section was A Bar in Broome. I loved the pictures throughout. She is a phenomenal writer. Her mind is fascinating.

Thank you NetGalley and Granta for the early review copy.

Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave is a non-fiction book that discusses different cemeteries. This is a mixture of memoir and factual non-fiction. Mariana Enriquez has a fascination for the macabre and has visited cemeteries all over the world including Australia, Argentina, the US, the UK, Italy and France. Famous graves are discussed in this including Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery. This is translated by Megan McDowell.

This was a really intriguing book and I’ve never read anything like it before. This had a slow start for me but once I got into it I started to really enjoy it. Some essays were more interesting than others with A Bar in Broome (Australia), The Moon Over Bourbon Street (New Orleans), The Absent Girl (Savannah) and a Victorian Afterworld (London) being my favourites. I really enjoyed how this discussed different death rituals in different countries alongside colonialism. I liked the essays that felt more like a memoir and I would love to read more from this author. The translation was good with a strong narrative voice. I am giving this 4.5 stars rounded up to a 5.