This week's lineup features new books (to U.S. readers) from Mexican authors. The list includes a political thriller from a gutsy journalist; a metaphorical masterpiece from an author hailed as Mexico's greatest living novelist; a young adult story set in a magical library; history from a crime novelist; and the release of a "lost" treasure by one of Mexico's more famous authors. Something for everyone?
Jorge Zepeda Patterson
Translated by Adrian Nathan West
Restless Books - May, 2017
[from the publisher]
A Mexican Master’s Global Thriller of Sex, Power, and Corruption
The Los Angeles Times reported that Mexico is "one of the world's deadliest places for journalists," being surpassed in 2016 only by Syria and Afghanistan. That harrowing fact puts into stark relief the kind of bravery it takes to expose the truth there, and the powerful forces determined to suppress it. Jorge Zepeda Patterson has been one such journalist for decades, reporting on crime and corruption at the highest levels of power. In recent years, he's turned his talents and experience to fiction, exploring our darkest human impulses—and the better impulses that resist them.
His novel Milena, or The Most Beautiful Femur in the World dives into the gritty world of international sex trafficking. Inspired by a 17-year-old girl he encountered in Mexico who'd been forced to become a sex slave, Zepeda explores human resilience in the face of the worst extremes imaginable, as well as the vast underworld of human traffickers and its many links with power. Along with Milena's story, who's on the run after escaping from her imprisonment, we get the tale of three impassioned friends who, each for his or her own reason, turn detective and race to find Milena before her former captors catch her and force her back into sex slavery. The result is a pulse-pounding romp across Europe and the Americas that reads like a Mexican version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
When it was first published, Milena, or the Most Beautiful Femur in the World won the Premio Planeta, the Spanish-speaking world's richest literary prize. We're proud to be bringing this important international voice to English-language readers.
Economist and sociologist Jorge Zepeda Patterson was born in Mazatlán, México, in 1952. He received a masters degree from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales and a doctorate in political science from The Sorbonne. After his journalistic training at El País, he was the founding editor of the newspapers Siglo 21 and Público in Guadalajara, and was later editor-in-chief of El Universal. He has authored numerous books on political analysis, and his weekly column appears in over twenty newspapers in Mexico. He currently edits the news website SinEmbargo.mx.
The Golden Cockerel and Other WritingsJuan Rulfo
Translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
Deep Vellum Publishing - May, 2017
[from the publisher]
The Golden Cockerel is the legendary lost novella from Mexico’s mega-influential Juan Rulfo, published here in English for the first time on the 100th anniversary of his birth, introducing this masterwork into Rulfo’s timeless canon, collected with previously-untranslated or hard-to-find writings by the author, most never before published in English, heralding a landmark event in world literature.
Juan Rulfo (1917-1986) was one of Mexico’s premier authors of the twentieth century and an important precursor of “magical realism” in Latin American writing. Rulfo has been credited with influencing the work of several generations of Latin American writers, including Sergio Pitol and Gabriel García Márquez. He is well known for his novel, Pedro Páramo, and short story collection, The Burning Plain (El llano en llamas). Deep Vellum’s forthcoming publication of The Golden Cockerel & Other Writings introduces his cinematic novella, originally made into an award-winning film, into English for the first time, along with a collection of rare, previously untranslated writings. Rulfo received Mexico’s National Prize for Literature (Premio Nacional de Literatura) in 1970, was elected to the Mexican Academy of Language (Academia Mexicana de la Lengua) in 1980, and received the Cervantes Prize (Premio Cervantes), the highest literary award in Spanish, in 1985. Rulfo suffered from lung cancer in his final months and died on January 7, 1986 at his home in Mexico City.
Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Planeta México - May, 2017
[from the publisher]
«—Benditos seamos los mexicanos, de derrota en derrota hemos abierto las puertas de la victoria definitiva. Se inicia la era de la razón, nuestro Siglo de las Luces.
—¿Y por cuánto tiempo? —preguntó Guillermo Prieto, el airecillo ramplón de la tarde le sacudía la cabellera leonada.
Ignacio Ramírez, llamado por sus amigos y enemigos El Nigromante, dudó; durante un instante se mesó la dispareja barba de chivo. Prieto no lo dejó seguir pensando:
—Perdón por mi ataque de pesimismo. ¿Acaso importa? Un segundo de fulgor, diez minutos, dos años... Y luego a volver a empezar. ¿No es ese el destino de un pueblo sabio?, ¿pelear eternamente?»
En tan sólo 15 años México se vio sacudido por la Revolución de Ayutla, que acabaría con la dictadura de Santa Anna; la batalla por la Constitución de 1857, el golpe militar y la Guerra de Reforma; la intervención anglo-franco-española, la agresión militar francesa y la guerra de guerrillas contra el imperio de Maximiliano.
Los protagonistas de la resistencia, de la república armada, fueron una generación de ciudadanos endiabladamente inteligentes, agudos, esforzados, laboriosos; personajes terriblemente celosos de su independencia y espíritu crítico, honestos hasta la absoluta pobreza. Los liberales puros, los llamados rojos.
Una década de exhaustiva investigación culmina en esta obra de tres tomos en la que Paco Ignacio Taibo II consigue retratar las simpatías y enemistades, los errores y las genialidades de uno de los periodos más decisivos y fundacionales de nuestra historia nacional: los años que van de 1854 a 1867.
Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Gijón, España, 11 de Enero de 1949
Historiador y escritor es, entre otras muchas cosas, prófugo de tres escuelas superiores, participante del movimiento estudiantil del 68 y fundador del género neopolicíaco en América Latina, además de profesor universitario y fundador de diferentes publicaciones culturales. Autor de diecinueve novelas, tres libros de cuentos, libros de historia, varias antologías, libros de reportaje y crónica publicados en veintiún países, sus obras han sido mencionadas entre los "libros del año" en The New York Times, Le Monde o el L. A. Times. Ha recibido el Premio Nacional de Historia INAH (1986), el Premio Internacional de Novela Planeta-Joaquín Mortiz y tres veces el Premio Dashiell Hammet a la mejor novela policíaca, y fundó -y dirigió hasta 2012- el festival literario de la Semana Negra de Gijón. Entre sus obras de ensayo destacan Ernesto Guevara, también conocido como el Che o Pancho Villa. Una biografía narrativa.
Yuri Herrera
Translated by Lisa Dillman
And Other Stories - June, 2017
[from the publisher]
In the court of the King, everyone knows their place. But as the Artist wins hearts and egos with his ballads, uncomfortable truths emerge that shake the Kingdom to its core. Part surreal fable and part crime romance, this prize-winning novel from Yuri Herrera questions the price of keeping your integrity in a world ruled by patronage and power.
A powerful and memorable meditation on the social and economic value of art in a world ruled by the pursuit of power. Publishers Weekly
Born in Actopan, Mexico, in 1970, Yuri Herrera studied Politics in Mexico, Creative Writing in El Paso and took his PhD in literature at Berkeley. His first novel to appear in English, Signs Preceding the End of the World, was published to great critical acclaim in 2015 and included in many Best-of-Year lists, including The Guardian‘s Best Fiction and NBC News’s Ten Great Latino Books, going on to win the 2016 Best Translated Book Award. He is currently teaching at the University of Tulane, in New Orleans.
Juan Villoro
Translated by Lawrence Schimel
Restless Books - October, 2017
[from the publisher]
Juan is looking forward to spending the summer having adventures with his best friend when he gets terrible news: not only are his parents separating, but he has to go live with his strange uncle Tito, who lives in a rambling home with three cats and about one million books. Shy and wary, Juan starts to explore Tito’s library, which is unlike any Juan has ever seen: the books are arranged in strange sections like "Motors That Make No Noise,” "Cheeses That Stink But Taste Delicious,” and "How to Govern Without Being President," and some of them seem to change location each time you look for them. In fact, Tito tells him that a book finds a reader when it’s needed, and not the other way around.
Soon, Tito lets his nephew in on a secret: Juan is a Princeps Reader, to whom books respond in a very special way, and Tito needs his help finding a special volume called The Wild Book, which has never allowed itself to be read. Juan is joined in the quest by his little sister and the pretty girl who works at the pharmacy across the street, and together they battle the nefarious Pirate Book, which steals words out of existing stories. Over the summer, with the help of his new friends, Juan learns all sorts of secrets about world classics from Alice in Wonderland to The Metamorphosis, and overcomes his fear of change and the unfamiliar.
Mexican master Juan Villoro’s The Wild Book is an unforgettable adventure story about books, libraries, and above all the power of reading, with as many life lessons as introductions to literary classics.
Juan Villoro is Mexico’s most prolific, prize-winning author, playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. His books have been translated into multiple languages. Several of his books have appeared in English, including his celebrated 2016 essay collection on soccer brought out by Restless Books, God Is Round. Villoro lives in Mexico City and is a visiting lecturer at Yale and Princeton universities.
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Later.
Manuel Ramos is the author of several novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction books and articles. His collection of short stories, The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories, was a finalist for the 2016 Colorado Book Award. My Bad: A Mile High Noir was published by Arte Público Press in 2016.
