Juan Pablo Villalobos

Juan Pablo Villalobos
Villalobos in 2012
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
OccupationAuthor

Juan Pablo Villalobos (born 1973) is a Mexican author.

His debut novel, Down the Rabbit Hole, was published by And Other Stories in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2011. He is also the author of Quesadillas (2011) and I’ll Sell You a Dog (2016).

His fourth novel, I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me, won the Herralde Prize.

He has lived in Mexico and Brazil, and currently resides in Spain with his wife and two children.

Life

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Villalobos was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1973. He lived in Barcelona, Spain, for eight years, before moving to Brazil.[1] In 2014, he moved back to Barcelona.

He studied marketing and Spanish literature. He has worked in market research and published travel stories, as well as literary and film criticism.[citation needed]

Work

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Villalobos's first book, Fiesta en la madriguera,[2] has been translated into Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Romanian, Dutch and English.[3] Its English translation, Down the Rabbit Hole[4] by Rosalind Harvey, was published in September 2011 by the UK publishing house And Other Stories.[5] Down the Rabbit Hole was shortlisted for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award.[6]

His second novel, Quesadillas, was also translated by Rosalind Harvey and was published by And Other Stories in 2013.

His third novel, I’ll Sell You a Dog, was published by And Other Stories in 2016.[7]

His fourth novel, I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me, was published by And Other Stories in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2020, and in the United States on 5 May 2020.[8]

Influences

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Villalobos has said that his first book was inspired by Nellie Campobello's Cartucho, a collection of short stories set during the Mexican Revolution.[9]

Reviews

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In Germany, Villalobos is recognized as an important representative of the so-called "narco-literature."[10] His book Fiesta en la madriguera has been called "a disillusioned domestic tale from the dark heartland of Latin American machismo".[11]

Bibliography

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Novels

  • Fiesta en la madriguera. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2011. ISBN 978-8433972125
  • Si viviéramos en un lugar normal, Barcelona: Anagrama, 2012. ISBN 9788433997531
  • Te vendo un perro. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2015. ISBN 978-8433997852
  • No voy a pedirle a nadie que me crea, Barcelona: Anagrama, 2017. Winner of the 2016 Premio Herralde. ISBN 9788433998224
  • Yo tuve un sueño: El viaje de los niños centroamericanos a Estados Unidos. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2019. ISBN 9788433926203
    • The Other Side, trans. Rosalind Harvey. New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. ISBN 9780374305734
  • La invasion del pueblo del espíritu. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2020. ISBN 9788433998910
    • Invasion of the Spirit People, trans. Rosalind Harvey. London. And Other Stories, 2022. ISBN 9781913505363

References

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  1. ^ Juan Pablo Villalobos (24 May 2012). "Bodies not corpses". English Pen. Archived from the original on 29 September 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. ^ Fiesta en la madriguera. Anagrama. 2010. ISBN 978-84-339-7212-5.
  3. ^ "Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos". And Other Stories. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  4. ^ Down the Rabbit Hole. London: And Other Stories. 2011. ISBN 978-1-908276-00-1.
  5. ^ Lucy Popescu (16 September 2012). "Down the Rabbit Hole, By Juan Pablo Villalobos, trans. Rosalind Harvey". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  6. ^ Alison Flood (11 November 2011). "Cancer biography competes with four novels on Guardian First Book award shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  7. ^ "I'll Sell You a Dog".
  8. ^ "I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me". And Other Stories. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  9. ^ Alice Gribbin (16 December 2011). "Books interview: Juan Pablo Villalobos". New Statesman. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  10. ^ Valentin Schönherr (28 April 2011). "Literatur zum Drogenkrieg in Mexiko. Vom Anspruch, den richtigen Ton zu treffen". WOZ Die Wochenzeitung (in German).
  11. ^ Ulrich Baron (30 April 2011). "Was sonst nicht im Krimi steht". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 7 November 2012.
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