5 days ago
118
1
Posted On: July 21st 2026, 09:17 am
Tagged Users:
HE PAST PURSUES US LIKE DETECTIVES, DEBT COLLECTORS, THIEVES by Juan Pablo Villalobos, translated by Daniel Hahn, publishes today.
Called back to a Mexico beset by cartel violence, the writer JP is meant to be caring for his ageing mother. Instead, however, he finds himself in a bar, drinking the kind of craft beer that gets you drunk too fast, punching a sort-of childhood friend, and being accused of a murder that he (probably) didn’t commit. Sounds cinematic? It most certainly is. So much so that Nicolás Giacobone, screenwriter of the acclaimed movie Birdman, has described it as ‘a masterful example of how to push autobiography to the extremes of fiction’, exploring themes that ‘when taken to their limits, reveal a sharp glimpse of an inexorable truth’.
Villalobos’ cinematic panache has also been recognised by Netflix, with recent adaptations of I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me (2023) and Down the Rabbit Hole (2024) now available for streaming. Not bad going for the writer whose work launched And Other Stories all the way back in 2011, in lively translation by Rosalind Harvey! Villalobos has been with us - and our readers - since the very beginning. As we gear up for the fifteenth anniversary of And Other Stories, there’s something very special about being able to bring his most recent novel to audiences worldwide.
#juanpablovillalobos #thepastpursuesuslikedetectivesdebtcollectorsthieves #intranslation #bookstagram #translatedfiction
Called back to a Mexico beset by cartel violence, the writer JP is meant to be caring for his ageing mother. Instead, however, he finds himself in a bar, drinking the kind of craft beer that gets you drunk too fast, punching a sort-of childhood friend, and being accused of a murder that he (probably) didn’t commit. Sounds cinematic? It most certainly is. So much so that Nicolás Giacobone, screenwriter of the acclaimed movie Birdman, has described it as ‘a masterful example of how to push autobiography to the extremes of fiction’, exploring themes that ‘when taken to their limits, reveal a sharp glimpse of an inexorable truth’.
Villalobos’ cinematic panache has also been recognised by Netflix, with recent adaptations of I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me (2023) and Down the Rabbit Hole (2024) now available for streaming. Not bad going for the writer whose work launched And Other Stories all the way back in 2011, in lively translation by Rosalind Harvey! Villalobos has been with us - and our readers - since the very beginning. As we gear up for the fifteenth anniversary of And Other Stories, there’s something very special about being able to bring his most recent novel to audiences worldwide.
#juanpablovillalobos #thepastpursuesuslikedetectivesdebtcollectorsthieves #intranslation #bookstagram #translatedfiction
Comments (1)
More posts
