Juan Pablo Villalobos

In a rare UK appearance, Gloucester Road Books host the celebrated Mexican author, Juan Pablo Villalobos, who will be discussing his latest novel to be translated into English, The Past Pursues Us Like Detectives, Debt Collectors, Thieves. Villalobos will be in conversation with poet, translator and academic, Rebecca Kosick.

Translated by Daniel Hahn, the novel follows JP on his return to Mexico to care for his increasingly frail mother. His plan is upended when he becomes the prime suspect in a murder enquiry following an altercation with a childhood 'friend'. The result is a very witty, humane and engrossing novel that further cements Villlalobos as a wonderfully singular writer and makes this an event not to be missed.

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‘A rambunctious picaresque of contemporary Mexican life, rendered into English by [Daniel] Hahn with appropriate energy.’ Kit Maude, Times Literary Supplement

‘Juan Pablo Villalobos ... demonstrates his classic wit and penchant for the absurd, blurring the lines of genre and protagonist with its author.’ Andrés Ordorica, The Skinny

‘The Past Pursues Us is a masterful example of how to push autobiography to the extremes of fiction, allowing the imagination to explore themes rooted in the author’s life. Themes that, when taken to their limits, reveal a sharp glimpse of an inexorable truth.’ Nicolás Giacobone, screenwriter of Birdman

‘Vividly drawn, darkly amusing and never dull.’ Chris Allnutt, Financial Times

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Juan Pablo Villalobos was born in Mexico in 1973. He’s the author of the novels Down the Rabbit Hole (shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Award), Quesadillas, I’ll Sell You a Dog, I Won’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me and The Invasion of the Spirit People, and of the non-fiction book The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Who Dream of Crossing the Border. His books have been translated into more than 15 languages. Down the Rabbit Hole and I Won’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me were adapted for film and premiered on Netflix. He lives in Barcelona, where he teaches writing.

Rebecca Kosick is a poet, translator, and Associate Professor of Comparative Poetry and Poetics at the University of Bristol, where she also codirects the Bristol Poetry Institute. She has published four books, most recently Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: The Alternative Press.