This Is Not Miami (Aquí no es Miami)
Fernanda Melchor, Sophie Hughes (translation)2023 Cercador Prize Finalist
A searing collection of true stories from Mexico's most exciting new writerSet in & around the city of Veracruz in Mexico, This Is Not Miami delivers twelve devastating stories that spiral from real events. These cronicás—a genre unique to Latin American writing, blending reportage & fiction—probe the motivations of murderers & misfits, compelling us to understand or even empathise with them. Melchor is like a ventriloquist, using a range of distinctive voices to evoke the smells, sounds & words of this fascinating world that includes mistreated women, damaged families, refugees, prisoners & even a beauty queen.
As in her hugely acclaimed novels Hurricane Season & Paradais, Fernanda Melchor’s masterful stories show how the violent & shocking events that make the headlines are only the surface ruptures of a society on the brink of chaos.
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Fernanda Melchor was born in 1982 in Veracruz, Mexico. She is widely recognised as one of Mexico’s most exciting new voices. She won the Anna-Seghers-Preis & the International Literature Award for Hurricane Season, which was also longlisted for the National Book Award, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize & was a New York Times Notable Book. Her most recent novel, Paradais, was published in 2022 & was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. This Is Not Miami is a collection of narrative non-fiction pieces. Melchor’s books are published in thirty-four territories. She lives in Mexico.
Sophie Hughes has translated works by Laia Jufresa & Enrique Vila-Matas, among others. Her translation of Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. She has also translated Melchor’s recent novel Paradais & her collection of non-fiction pieces, This Is Not Miami. In 2021 she was awarded the Queen Sofía Translation Prize.