Melchor manages to weave fiction storytelling with non-fiction events to create an interesting type of news story full of details about the people behind the headlines.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to get into this one but once I did I couldn’t put it down. An incredible selection of short non fiction pieces exploring the authors hometown and country, brimming with desperation, greed, corruption, and human cruelty. I’m so excited to see what else Melchor puts out in the future, she truly has a one of a kind voice.

Melchor's 'Hurricane Season' is one of those books that I had no idea what to think of as I was reading it or afterwards, but found a real thrill in the way it unsettled me, and propelled itself forward with a terrifying energy.

It is therefore fascinating to read 'This Is Not Miami'- shorter pieces that sit in a space between fiction and non-fiction, and have the feel of strange newspaper clippings or signs at a museum of curiosities. But Melchor's voice is clear and energetic, driving forward with an eye to the most interesting and unsettling details of the everyday and the unusual.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy to review honestly.

I've previously read Melchor's Hurricane Season so I jumped at the chance to read this one.

'This is Not Miami' is described as literary journalism. I wasn't quite aware of this subgenre so I did some research. Literary Journalism is a creative nonfiction that comes closest to newspapers. Combining factual reporting with narrative techniques. It often require extensive research and many interviews. Norman Sims author of The Literary Journals wrote that it "demands immersion in complex, difficult subjects. The voice of the writer surfaces to show an author is at work."

Melchor's text is thirteen nonfiction perspectives all set in and around the gritty streets of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico between 2002-2011. Melchor provides keen detail into the lives of the individuals depicted. (Also amazing work by Sophie Hughes providing a pure translation for this book)

While every story is not as captivating as the rest (I did enjoy the first half more) they all are relevant, contributing to our understanding of Veracruz and the people subjected to the postcolonialism, violence and narco-terroism that impacts them daily. Melchor does an amazing job of exhibiting macabre events and still depicting the humanity and hope to aspire for more in the heart of brutality and upheaval.

Author of Hurricane Season & Paradais Fernanda Melchor has blessed us with a Fitzcarraldo treasure.

This Is Not Miami is a compassionately rendered piece of writing, formed using a structure with no English language equivalent. Relatos or Cronicás, described by Melchor in her foreword as a 'hybrid form, both informative and interpretive' provide a literary journalism-like structure for the accounts detailed in This Is Not Miami.

An absorbing depiction of the ills of humanity, the 160 page piece illustrates the brutality of police corruption, lynchings, broken families and beauty queens. Each account is brought to life with Melchors’ unflinching and arresting prose.

‘As Sartre pointed out, reality does not tell stories: that’s the job of language and memory’

Sincere thanks to @fitzcarraldoeditions and @netgalley for our ARC.

Set in and around the city of Veracruz in Mexico, 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 cronicás – a genre unique to Latin American writing that blends reportage, narrative non-fiction, and novelistic forms – 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 disdain them as monsters. As in her hugely acclaimed novels Hurricane Season and Paradais, and once again brilliantly translated by Sophie Hughes, Fernanda Mechor’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.
I always think that a short story collection can't be perfect - every story has to be as strong as the next and that is a difficult job, but this book certainly with it's blend of eeriness, melancholia and feeling does a really good job at trying to make this collection something to be remembered.

From the first story, this book tells almost the story of losing the rose-tinted glasses of youth to confusing small planes for UFO's and that jadedness that comes with realising the truth of what was happening makes for a sad but honest start to this book that sets the standard for the rest of the book throughout.

Every character glows from the page, from El Ojon, whose personality jumps out in 'The Vice Belt' to Jorge in 'The House on El Estero' has a narrative voice that just works so flawlessly throughout as they recount a story that happened many years ago and moves between that and the present and this voice is excellent no matter the story in this collection.

I really enjoyed these stories and would love to see more from this author, there's so much talent with words here.

(Thanks to Netgalley for the arc for review)

“Contradictory yet complementary archetypes. Masks that dehumanize women, acting like blank canvases on which to project the desires, fears and anxieties of a society that professes to be an enclave of tropical sensualism but deep down is profoundly conservative, classist and misogynist.” Fernanda Melchor’s This Is Not Miami, a collection of non-fiction accounts (the Spanish term ‘relatos’ is favoured by Melchor) translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes, is as full of brilliant craft and strangeness as her fiction work Hurricane Season. Most of the texts here were written from 2002-2011; they move from UFOs and smugglers to migrants, clutching a Mexican pier, desperate to find Miami, to the high profile murder of two children by a party-going drug addict. The middle part of the book is concerned with a haunted house, called Casa del Diablo, and an exorcism, and the loving act of storytelling; the final section pivots from the arrival of crack in Veracruz to loose thoughts on living in Veracruz. “Jorge's way of telling stories fascinated me: he wove together […] dialogue, gestures and his own views, both past and present. A typical Veracruz guy, I thought, […] trained within a culture that mocks the written word and dismisses the archive, preferring testimony, oral and dramatic accounts - the joyful act of conversing. […] It took me several years to work out that, in reality, I'd fallen in love with his stories.” I love Melchor’s blurring, fact-fiction style, and the sense of being in tune with the stories and perceptions of others that so characterises her work.

Great writing. I was really looking forward to the non fiction debut for Melchor and she did not disappoint. I enjoyed both her fiction novels published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, my favourite UK indie publishing house. The writing style was short and sharp. The stories were interesting. I liked the journalistic approach. Altogether an enjoyable read and one I will be promoting to my followers.

I have read Fernanda Melchor's 'Hurricane Season', and have not gotten around to 'Paradais'.
While 'This Is Not Miami's shares a lot thematically with 'Hurricane Season', Melchor does an even better job with 'Miami' of making the reader empathize with characters, (in this case real individuals), who are forced to endure a society ravaged by psychopathic narcos. Most are just caught in the maelstrom.
I especially loved the essay retelling Melchor's ex-husband's Devil House story. For someone who claims to not believe in any supernatural phenomena, Melchor writes like a seasoned horror film writer.
A brilliant read from start to finish, will be recommending in my shop

In this collection Fernanda Melchor does for Veracruz what David Simon does for Baltimore. Through personal stories she manages to paint a broad picture of crime, addiction, violence, ineffective government and prison life in the city.

It is non-fiction, but as Melchor says in her foreword:

"I know that subjectivity and journalism are not the easiest bedfellows, and that some of my crónica run the risk of reading like straightforward works of fiction, despite my best efforts to convince you otherwise. I can only assure the reader that my intention when writing them was always to tell a story with the maximum amount of detail and the minimum amount of noise, and that the words I use derive from my sources’own insider accounts, from my total and sometimes brazen exploitation of their observations, and, of course, from my own involvement in the events and places described."

This wasn't as all-absorbing a read as Paradais but there are some excellent texts that, combined, give you get a pretty good idea of life in Veracruz for the less fortunate.

This is Not Miami is a beautiful collection of anecdotes reflecting life in the tumultuous city of Veracruz, Mexico. From murderous mothers, to confused illegal immigrants, this series of stories based on real events spans the breadth of life in this city, a dangerous and terrifying place.

Fernanda Melchor is an exceptionally talented writer and the translation by Sophie Hughes leaves nothing to be desired. The delicate prose draws the reader in, to become lost in the elegant depictions of life in the city. Melchor transports the reader to Mexico and confronts us with devastating beauty and icy terror as she relates the plights of the cast of characters in her stories.

This is non-fiction that reads like fiction and it is spell-binding. I absolutely would recommend this to anybody, thank you to netgalley and Fitzcarraldo for the early access!

Brutal and incredible, like everything by Fernanda Melchor, it paints an unflinching portrait of a Veracruz marked by violence. I'm in awe of her writing and her ability to entangle fiction and the very real stories she's telling. Incredible.

Fernanda Melchor's "This is not Miami" translated by Sophie Hughes is a haunting and powerful collection of ‘relatos’ divided into three chapters: Lights, Fire, and Shadows. In the preface, Melchor explains that most of the texts were written between 2002 and 2011, and describes them as ‘tales and accounts’ (the Spanish word ‘relato’ spans both meanings). Her writing is raw and unflinching, laying bare the grim realities of life in various troubled communities. The characters in these stories are vividly drawn and deeply flawed, struggling to survive in a world that seems determined to destroy them. Sophie Hughes does a great job of translating Melchor's stunning prose, managing to retain the poetic intensity that captures the raw emotions of Melchor's characters.

These varied narratives and perspectives together create a complex and layered portrait of what is a community. Each 'relato' has its own power, but three of them stood out for me: "A Jail out of the Movies" depicts prisoners being relocated so their facility can be used as the set of a new Mel Gibson movie, while "The House En El Estero" explores exorcism and the supernatural. In "Queen, Slave, Woman," a mother is accused of killing her two children and burying them in plant plots.

Overall, "This is not Miami" is a challenging and thought-provoking set of 'relatos' that offers a searing critique of the social and political realities of contemporary Mexico. Highly recommended.

Many thanks #Netgalley and #Fitzcarraldoeditions for the advance review copy

#pudseyrecommends

"This is Not Miami" is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that explores the lives of a group of young people living on the outskirts of a Mexican city. Melchor masterfully weaves together the stories of her characters, each of whom is struggling to find their place in a world that seems to be increasingly hostile and uncertain.

One of the most impressive aspects of this novel is the way in which Melchor captures the voices and experiences of her characters. Through their perspectives, we get a glimpse into the realities of life in contemporary Mexico, where violence, poverty, and corruption are all too common. Despite the darkness of the subject matter, however, Melchor manages to infuse the novel with a sense of hope and resilience.

Another strength of "This is Not Miami" is the way in which Melchor uses language to create a vivid and immersive reading experience. Her prose is raw, visceral, and at times disturbing, but it is also incredibly beautiful and poetic. Her descriptions of the natural world are particularly stunning, and serve as a powerful counterpoint to the bleakness of the urban landscape.

Overall, I would highly recommend "This is Not Miami" to anyone looking for a challenging and thought-provoking read. It is a novel that will stay with you long after you finish the final page, and one that will leave you with a deeper understanding of the complexities of contemporary Mexico.

A wonderful text. I always knew that Melchor 's novels had to be rooted in some reality, somewhere. In this short book, you see the Mexico out of whicj these novels came. She blends everyday terror with the deep pull toward pleasure effortlessly. I'll read whatever she writes as soon as it is in English (or earlier thanks to my secret lol)

A True Cross to bear.

A stunning collection of vignettes - following on from, but largely pre-dating, her novels 'Hurricane Season' and 'Paradaiso' - from Fernanda Melchor. Basically an immersive version of the lurid Mexican tabloids glimpsed on news-stands that exposes the rotten to the core-ness of the Mexican state, and the lengths (And depths) pepole have to go to to survive. Tales of hustlers, corruption, demons, victims, and narcos, but with an innate understanding of the mechanisms that link them all together.

Thanks to Fitzcarraldo and NetGalley for this ARC.

Five stars.

Literary journalism is a new one for me but Fernanda Melchor is not. I loved Hurricane Season so thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

This Is Not Miami is a collection of non-fiction stories carefully told from the point of view of the witnesses. I admit to spending quite a lot of my time during the reading Googling the various players in these often disturbing and gruesome tales.

Fernanda Melchor, for me, in one of those writers who may be incapable of putting a foot wrong and, I suspect, there's much more and even greater stories to come yet. I wait with bated breath.

Apologies for the short review but to start describing the stories would be to tell them.

I have previously read and enjoyed Hurricane season (all the content warnings in this book), so was really excited to explore other books from Fernanda Melchor that are available in translation. This is not Miami is at the border between non-fiction and fiction, the author mentioned in the beginning that the tales are inspired from reality, based on accounts from different sources, even if it reads like fiction, the people, the city (Veracruz) and what happens feel real.

It's easy to see the seeds of Hurricane season in This is not Miami, violence, cruelty, fear are a normal presence in daily life, the characters are well aware of the dangers that exist around them, they know the unwritten laws, what's safe and what can kill them. The author doesn't shy away from topics like drug-related crimes, torture, rape, murder, infanticide. I really sensed that even with all this violence and horrible things happening, the author has love, respect and appreciation for the city and its people that just want to live a good life.

The accounts that stood out to me the most were: This is not Miami, about a group of refugees arriving by ship in Veracruz when they thought they have reached the United States, Queen, slave, woman, about a woman who kills her 2 children (the topic reminded me of another book, Stranger to ourselves that I would also recommend), Fire - Ballad of the burned man where violence is paid back with more violence, The house on El Estero which is a haunted house type of story and Veracruz with a Z for Zeta, which contains more stories, with fear and danger as a common thread. Since this is a collection of tales, it is to be expected that some stories would be more memorable than others or more relevant or more interesting, but overall it was a pretty strong collection, that shone a light on a city well known by Melchor.

All in all, this is 3-3.5 stars book for me, I enjoyed reading it and will continue to follow what the author will write next (Paradais is already on my TBR, looking forward to it).

This is not Miami will be published on 10th May 2023 by Fitzcarraldo Editions, translator is Sophie Hughes (amazing one). Thank you, Fitzcarraldo Editions and Netgalley for the ARC!

A stunning nonfiction collection which feels like fiction. Melchor writes about Veracruz in such an exciting and candid way that it was hard to put this collection down. The longest story in this about a so called haunted house was brilliant and gave me Stephen King/Mariana Enriquez vibes. I loved the lyrical yet balanced portrait of the area and Melchor’s voice is as unique and addictive as ever. Cannot wait to read Hurricane Season after this.

Fernanda Melchor, author extraordinaire, goes literary journalism: This collection assembles thirteen non-fiction texts, mostly written between 2002 and 2011, that paint a vivid picture of Melchor's hometown of Veracruz, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico. In her foreword, she ponders the relation between fiction and non-fiction, especially regarding framing and perspectives, and what terms, in English and Spanish, try to encompass different approaches to the circumstance that all writing is ultimately subjective, that objectivity is a goal one might strife for, but that it is unattainable due to our imperfect human nature (which can also be an advantage, if the writer is aware of their biases and employs intelligent literary techniques). Be the theoretical framework as it may - I recently spent quite some time puzzling over aspects of literary journalism, so I'm quite over the topic at the moment - this collection shines with its intense descriptions and memorable scenes that chronicle the stories Veracruz consists of.

Starting off with a phenomenal text about young Fernanda who believes a drug trafficking plane to be a UFO during the time of a solar eclipse, the stories branch out in all directions: We get a fantastic text about refugees who hid on a ship and got off in Veracruz because they mistook it as Miami (hence the title), which leads to an unexpected moral conundrum. There's also an absorbing text about Evangelina Tejera Bosada, the former carnival queen of Veracruz who ended up killing her two young children. I also learnt about the lynching of Rodolfo Soler, a man the police didn't bring to justice and who, in a particularly gruesome act of vigilantism, was then burned alive by citizens of Veracruz. Femicides also play a crucial role, like that of Nayeli Reyes Santos, a federal judiciary who was abducted and dismembered by a drug cartel.

While I didn't find all texts equally captivating - I particularly liked the first half better than the second -, this is an outstanding portrayal of a specific place in a specific time, that highlights the ambivalence of a society, gives voice to victims and investigates the seedier, messier dynamics below the surface. As readers of Melchor know, she is a specialist when it comes to showing and pondering human cruelty, and this collection is no exception. What a great writer!