Staff Pick
Melchor's work is always uniquely woven with strong insights on violence and the systems that perpetuate it. In This is Not Miami, Melchor applies her sharp, analytical eye to true stories of her hometown of Veracruz, Mexico. As a lover of both Melchor's previously translated works and narrative nonfiction as a genre, I am ecstatic to get my hands on this release. Recommended By Mar S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A searing collection of true stories from “one of Mexico’s most exciting new voices” (The Guardian)
Set in and around the Mexican city of Veracruz, This Is Not Miami delivers a series of devastating stories — spiraling from real events — that bleed together reportage and the author’s rich and rigorous imagination. These narrative nonfiction pieces probe deeply into the motivations of murderers and misfits, into their desires and circumstances, forcing us to understand them — and even empathize — despite our wish to simply label them monsters. As in her hugely acclaimed novels Hurricane Season and Paradais, Fernanda Melchor’s masterful stories show how the violent and shocking aberrations that make the headlines are only the surface ruptures of a society on the brink of chaos.
Review
"Fernanda Melchor has a powerful voice, and by powerful I mean unsparing, devastating, the voice of someone who writes with rage and has the skill to pull it off." Samanta Schweblin
Review
"Melchor evokes the stories of Flannery O’Connor, or, more recently, Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings. Impressive." Julian Lucas, The New York Times
Review
"While her writing turns an unsparing eye on the dysfunction and violence of her native Veracruz, Melchor makes clear that it is neither her job nor her intention to explain her homeland. Her novels are less portraits of Mexico than they are literary MRIs, probing unseen corners of the human heart and finding that many of its darker shades are universal." Benjamin P. Russell, The New York Times
About the Author
Born in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1982, Fernanda Melchor is "one of Mexico's most exciting new voices" (The Guardian). Her novel Hurricane Season was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book.
Sophie Hughes has translated numerous Spanish-language authors, including José Revueltas and Fernanda Melchor for New Directions.