Fitzcarraldo scoops two from International Booker Prize shortlisted Melchor

Fitzcarraldo Editions is to publish a novel and a collection of non-fiction by International Booker Prize shortlisted author Fernanda Melchor. 

Publisher Jacques Testard acquired UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Australia) from Melchor's agent Michael Gaeb at Literarische Agentur Michael Gaeb, for the novel Páradais and the collection This is Not Miami. 

Melchor was shortlisted for the International Booker this year for her novel Hurricane Season, also published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Testard said: "In a recent interview in a Mexican magazine, Fernanda Melchor said she thinks of her new novel Páradais as a car speeding along at 150km/h on a dark and narrow road. Anyone who has read Hurricane Season should feel a tingle of anticipation at this news. She is an extraordinary writer and I am so thrilled to publish two more of her books with Fitzcarraldo Editions in translations by Sophie Hughes, the exceptional translator she deserves."

Páradais, to be published in late 2020 in Spanish by Literatura Random House, is narrated by Polo, a "deadbeat working a dead-end job as a gardener-cum-skivvy at an exclusive private residence". The synopsis explains: "He meets Franco, a different kind of dropout—a rich kid with all the time in the world to spend his days fantasising about his glamorous new neighbour, Señora Marián. An extraordinary novel, Páradais explores the stark contrasts and quotidian resentments between rich and poor, both equally affected by the machismo and violence that has ripped through Melchor's native Veracruz state."

Fitzcarraldo Editions will publish the novel in autumn 2021, simultaneously with New Directions in North America. This is Not Miami will follow in 2022. 

The synopsis for the non-fiction collection states: "Fernanda Melchor creates a new form entirely her own—a hybrid combining fiction and the non-fiction crónica form—to narrate the social unrest inherent to everyday life in contemporary Mexico. The stories tell of violent cartel crime, myth, immigration, but their real concern is how these events affect Mexicans from all walks of life—dockworkers, corrupt cops, victims and perpetrators. With verve, empathy and a unique eye for detail, Fernanda Melchor paints yet another arresting portrait of contemporary Mexico."