Juan Pablo Villalobos

For this striking, stripped-down account of youth immigration, Villalobos interviewed teens at various stages of the immigration process to illustrate their stories-the physical and emotional difficulties of their travels. He then changed certain elements of these stories in order to protect the children's identities. Each chapter brings forth the voice of one young immigrant's experience, from crossing the Mexican desert to gang violence to the freezers...

"Juan Pablo Villalobos's fifth novel adopts a gentle, fable-like tone, approaching the problem of racism from the perspective that any position as idiotic as xenophobia can only be fought with sheer absurdity. In an unnamed city, occupied by an unnamed world power, an immigrant named Gastón makes his living selling exotic vegetables to eateries around the city. He has a dog called Kitten, who's been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and a good friend...

No voy a pedirle a nadie que me crea, nos advierten con frecuencia los distintos narradores y personajes de esta historia, en la que lo corriente se transforma en un delirio sin que uno sepa muy bien cómo, en la que lo raro acaba siendo normal y en la que no podemos hacer otra cosa que reírnos, porque todo es hilarante, cotidiano y surrealista a la vez, como la vida misma. Todo empieza con un primo que ya de chico apuntaba maneras de estafador,...

Long before he was the taco seller whose Gringo Dog recipe made him famous throughout Mexico City, our hero was an aspiring artist: an artist, that is, till his would-be girlfriend was stolen by Diego Rivera, and his dreams snuffed out by his hypochondriac mother. Now our hero is resident in a retirement home, where fending off boredom is far more grueling than making tacos. Plagued by the literary salon that bumps about his building's lobby and haunted...