4.0 

This is Not Miami

By Fernanda Melchor & Sophie Hughes
This is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor & Sophie Hughes digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A searing collection of true stories from “one of Mexico’s most exciting new voices” (The Guardian)

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL TRANSLATION AWARD IN PROSE

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.

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This is Not Miami Reviews

4.0
“3.66 / 5 This collection of *crónicas* - which Melchor describes as “a hybrid form at once informative and interpretive - is a series of accounts of people, places and events that occurred in Veracruz between 2002 and 2011. Within are stories of supposed UFOs, alleged demonic possessions, and most frightening of all, “relatos” of narcos, tragic lives, wasted talent, and unsolved murders. I definitely preferred the first half of this collection more than the second, but I will absolutely read more Fernanda Melchor and I’m glad I picked this up.”
“i think the real subject of the book isn’t violence itself, but the stories societies tell in order to survive it. violence is so embedded in our social fabric that people speak of it the way they might discuss the weather or a neighborhood scandal. we speculate, exaggerate and even turn real crimes to some kind of myth. they become larger than life not because they actually are, but because the stories around them keep mutating. by the time the reader encounters them, we’re no longer sure whether we’re reading journalism, gossip, or folklore-and I adore how Melchor lets those boundaries blur.”
“I really liked this! Unsurprisingly, some stories were better than others, but overall it was a strong collection. I look forward to reading more of Melchor’s books. Faves: “Queen, Slave, Woman”, “The House on El Estero”, “Life’s Not Worth a Thing” and “Veracruz with a Zee for Zeta”.”

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