Hurricane Season
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Hurricane Season
Buy Now for £14.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Inés del Castillo
-
Tim Pabon
-
Ana Osorio
About this listen
The English-language debut of one of the most thrilling and accomplished young Mexican writers
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Winner of the Internationaler Literaturpreis
The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse - by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals - propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.
Like Roberto Bolano’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence - real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.
©2016 Fernanda Melchor; English translation copyright 2020 Sophie Hughes (P)2020 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
It's tough to take in places, but overall it's a fabulous story and one of the most hilarious books I've ever read. Can't wait for the next one!
Extremely funny (in places) book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Now, far be it from me to contradict the IBP judges but Hurricane Season is the better book and considerably so. Both deal with entrapment: TDOE explores the turmoil of a guilt-ridden child stuck in a remote farmhouse but HS is bigger and bolder with its spotlight on a community of people struggling to survive social deprivation. A killer cocktail of violence, corruption and squalor with a hefty dose of superstition, this one left me reeling.
Set in the fictional Mexican town of ‘La Matosa’ the story centres on the brutal murder of a ‘witch’ who hosted drug orgies for local youths, provided abortions for sex workers and was rumoured to have a stash of gold in her decrepit home. One by one we’re introduced to a handful of characters whose lives intersected with her; each breathlessly depraved tale reveals a bit more about the protagonist, the witch and the dystopia that is La Matosa.
While the mystery of who committed the murder is central to the narrative, the majesty of HS is its depiction of a town ravaged by the oil and the drugs industry. A searing, swirling account of broken lives; of misogyny, homophobia and incest; of unreliable narrators whose accounts contradict and confound and elicit little sympathy. This isn’t a novel of light and shade. It’s filthy and dark and the singular joy comes from Melchor’s writing. The prose is electrifying and the structure extraordinary but it’s the fearlessness that grabs you. Huge shout-out to translator Sophie Hughes and all three narrators. Outstanding job.
I doubt this is on the Mexican Tourist Board’s recommended reads but if you’re up for it, gird your loins, grab a bottle of tequila and dive in. And expect a five star hangover.
Dark, Disturbing, Brilliant
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Strong
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
f*****g love it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a lot of bitter people being bitter
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Too vulgar for me
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.