Asense of place often has a political edge in Latin American writing. Even magic realism – which takes fantastic liberties with the contours of cities and pueblos, jungles and rivers – is rooted in the living, breathing, dying and warring world of its characters. Over five centuries, Hispanic authors have loaned from and contested European ideas about their world, adapting imported traditions (from naturalism to crime fiction to stream-of-consciousness) and reworking them to bring to life the vibrancy and vicissitudes of their youthful continent. The best novels are as alluring and stimulating as the most atmospheric places. To choose just 10 was only possible by imagining I was packing for a long road trip with limited baggage. I would take these, a comfortable hammock and a sturdy pillow.

Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos

In literature, before the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 70s there was a fashion for “regionalist” writing – books that treated their setting almost as a character. Venezuela’s steamy llanos (Klik Here) are the backdrop to this 1929 novel about a strong woman in a world of rough ranchers and cowboys. Gallegos details every tremble of palm frond, every ripple of skulking alligator. The novel, somewhat forgotten but a classic, inspired many of the later magic realists. In 1948 its author became president in what is widely regarded as Venezuela’s first legitimate election. Some critics have said the character of Doña Bárbara anticipated Eva Perón, while Hugo Chávez was wont to call George W Bush “Señor Peligro”, or “Mr Danger”, after the novel’s imperialist villain.

Tierra del Fuego by Sylvia Iparraguirre

This accomplished historical novel, published in 1998, retells the story of the abduction of Jemmy Button and three other indigenous Fuegians by Captain Robert Fitzroy of HMS Beagle. The story moves from the large island at the southern tip of Argentina (and South America) to England – where an attempt is made to civilise Button – and, finally, to the Falkland Islands. Iparraguirre’s portrait of London is convincingly Dickensian, but even more stirring are the “dark forests” and rocky shores of Tierra del Fuego, the lonely home of the “oldest winter in the world”.