An award-winning author covering institutional violence in Mexico; a storyteller who ranks among the best of her generation; a young writer casting out the demons eating away at his country, Guatemala; an author delving into a futuristic narrative about the dilemma of colonizing the moon; and true sales hits that conquer the youngest readers. The Guadalajara International Book Fair is a showcase showcasing the literary innovations that are setting the pace in the Latin American publishing world. These are some of the proposals of this year’s edition of the FIL.
Vicente Alfonso: Journalism and literature to report on a defiled Mexico
When Vicente Alfonso (Torreón, Mexico, age 45) was a child, he was fascinated by reading the court records his mother, a judge, brought home. He immersed himself in the stories that captured his imagination, but also questioned the way justice was delivered. He would ask his mother if she was sure that a person was guilty and she would reply that there can never be complete certainty. “It made me realize from a young age that justice is fallible and made by people,” says Alfonso. But the thorn of writing was pricked out of those acts, which for him had the structure of a crime novel, and now Alfonso is making his way into the Mexican literary world as one of its new and valuable narrators. He has published four novels and one chronicle, including La sangre desconocida (Alfaguara), winner of the Élmer Mendoza National Novel Award, one of Penguin Random House’s recommendations at the FIL in Guadalajara. The novel begins with the excitement caused in a small town in America by the disappearance of the heiress to a multimillion-dollar trading house, a fact that connects a Mexican woman named Rosario Navarro. The narrative is also an excuse to talk about a very topical problem in Mexico: institutional violence. “I like to tell stories that have one foot in reality and the other in fiction. The journalism profession forces you to think about how you approach reality in order to write well-rounded and engaging stories,” says the author.
Aura García-Junco: exploring a society petrified by selfishness
Portrait of Aura García-Junco, during FIL 2022. Roberto Antillón
The mystery of one person’s disappearance can unleash a thousand ghosts. This is what happens to Sofía, a skeptical teacher, hurt by the memories of the disappearance of a dear friend, which also make her a vagabond in a world where those who are no longer there become statues of stone, figures in the official Statistics. . Those memories that are paralyzing her begin to change as she develops a relationship with a woman the same age as her friend, and then she understands things need to change. Devastated to see how the society she lives in is content to have a statue honoring her disappearance, she decides to search and understand what is happening. Sofía is the protagonist of Mar de piedra (Seix Barral), the new novel by Aura García-Junco (Mexico City, 34 years old) that she presented at the FIL in Guadalajara. García-Junco was voted one of the best Spanish storytellers under 35 by British magazine Granta. “What I try to do the most is for the characters to be deep and complex, act on their own and make mistakes. It’s a long process creating characters, grinding them down until I feel like they can stand on their own two feet and go on their own adventures. Which then seems silly, but no, the truth is that it’s quite difficult to get to the point where you feel like they have a life of their own and that those wounds that are the triggers for those stories, too Triggers for one become whole,” says García-Junco.
Rodrigo Fuentes: Remembrance to exorcise a country
Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Fuentes at FIL. Nayeli Cruz
In Map of Other Worlds (Sophos), Rodrigo Fuentes (Guatemala, 39 years old) tells a very personal story, but at the same time chronicles a country on the move. The Central American Short Story Cover Award (2014) tells the story of his family, a ghost-infested narrative, with his murdered grandfather at the forefront, to understand a Guatemala mired in corruption, impunity, where the powerful walk hand in hand with rule rule military and where the judiciary is unfair and militant judges are waiting for ostracism and banishment. The young narrator, one of the promises of Central American literature, does not leave the reader apathetic: from the beginning of the novel he sows a nagging need to continue the story, especially when the reader encounters this sentence: “Dad has been arrested. ” . Fuentes, who presented his novel at the FIL in Guadalajara, belongs to a new generation of Central American writers who, in the words of Claudia Neira Bermúdez, director of Centroamérica Cuenta, the region’s most important literary festival, “fresh literature, with a different look” in a region bled dry in its history by wars, dictatorships and now violent gangs.
Fernando Viveros: And if we colonize the moon?
Stella is ready to launch into space and reach the moon, the satellite that will be colonized by humans in the near future. Thus begins Somos (Caligrama), the novel by Mexican Fernando Viveros (Mexico City, 62 years old), a reflection on the impact of technological progress, space exploration and the dictatorship of the algorithm. Though the work is set in the not-too-distant future, it’s also a nod to the present, with entrepreneurs determined to push boundaries, like space entrepreneur Elton Trust, who sounds like an alter ego of Elon Musk, who is much to tell in the media. “It’s a story that deals with the dilemmas of colonization. It’s a novel about themes that bring the future closer to the present, such as genetic programming, how to insert technology into a body to improve it, the discussion of freedom through algorithms on social networks and the internet,” explains the author. “These are topics that are very popular because this isn’t science fiction, it’s something that’s close in the short term,” he adds.
Alberto Villareal: the inspiration of poetry
Alberto Villarreal, Roberto Antillón
At just 28 years old, Alberto Villarreal made a name for himself in the Mexican publishing world with his fresh commitment to a narrative that will attract young readers. Born in Monterrey, northern Mexico, the buckthorn is also a social media phenomenon, and his followers display a loyalty that sometimes makes him nervous, he says. At the FIL in Guadalajara he presented his collection of poems Aquí no hay sed (Planeta), small verses full of pictures. “What I want is to talk about feelings and emotions, to speak directly to the heart,” says Villareal. The young writer confirms that some readers have approached him to say that thanks to his poems they have been looking for other poets, and this fills him with satisfaction. “They’re curious and they start jumping between poets, genres and writers,” he says.
Sue Zurita: The phenomenon of self-application became a cult book
Penguin Random House’s pavilion at the FIL in Guadalajara became a magnet for young readers. Dozens of them eagerly took to the shelves in search of their favorite authors, young authors born as part of a mass phenomenon, self-publishing, who thanks to their success have been signed by the big publishers. One of them is Sue Zurita (Villahermosa, Mexico, 37 years old), who had great success with El viaje de los colibríes (Grijalbo), a novel about escape, the search for meaning, love and openness to the unexpected. Zurita presented a new edition of his best-selling text at FIL, which includes an unpublished chapter to continue to draw in his journey dozens of young readers intrigued by his character, the lovable Romina. “These works introduce young people to books and find their way into the world of reading,” says a Random House editor.
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