El. knyga: I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me

Winner of the 2016 Herralde Prize

I dont expect anyone to believe me, warns the narrator of this novel, a Mexican student called Juan Pablo Villalobos. He is about to fly to Barcelona on a scholarship when hes kidnapped in a bookshop and whisked away by thugs to a basement. The gangsters are threatening his cousina wannabe entrepreneur known to some as Projects and to others as dickheadwho is gagged and tied to a chair. The thugs say Juan Pablo must work for them. His mission? To make Laia, the daughter of a corrupt politician, fall in love with him. He accepts. . . . though not before the crime boss has forced him at gunpoint into a discussion on the limits of humour in literature.

Part campus novel, part gangster thriller, I Dont Expect Anyone to Believe Me is Villalobos at his best. Exuberantly foul-mouthed and intellectually agile, this hugely entertaining novel finds the light side of difficult subjectsimmigration, corruption, family loyalty and lovein a world where the difference between comedy and tragedy depends entirely on whos telling the joke.

Praise for Juan Pablo Villalobos:

'Funny, convincing, appalling...a punch-packer.' Ali Smith

'Savagely funny.' Lili Wright, New York Times