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Hurricane Season

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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. Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction United States Women's Fiction World Literature Latin American Mexico Village
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I stopped listening because the narrator scampered through the text making it difficult to process and engage. Even slowing it down did little to remedy her timbre and pitch. I listen to books to enjoy and savour the details of plot and characterisation over which the author has laboured long and hard. I can skim read at speed for myself (which I tend to do); when I listen to a book I want it to be a joyful and engaging experience - not trying to keep up with a speed-reading narrator.

I had to change the reading speed

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I had no idea what this book was about but having read the one star review it got, I realised it might be for me. I wasn't disappointed, made me belly laugh throughout.
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

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I love how the author pulls us in, makes us care for the characters and then slaps us in the face. she's got a gift.

f*****g love it

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Absolutely amazing. Strong and can be triggering but you come out on the other end. Amazing book

Strong

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Shortlisted for the 2020 Int Booker Prize, Hurricane Season lost out toThe Discomfort of Evenings - memorably the most revolting book I’ve read.

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

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