Sophie Hughes & Fernanda Melchor: Another Mexico (2020 Event)

Celebrated Mexican author Fernanda Melchor’s first book
translated into English, Hurricane Season, has been shortlisted
for the International Booker Prize.


In a piece for Granta, the book’s translator Sophie Hughes
reflected: ‘Melchor goes with her characters to the edge of the
precipice. As her English translator, I followed her there and
was left changed and with many questions about her method and
influences, manipulating readers, and the unavoidable lure of
darkness.’


Ahead of the Award’s announcement, author and translator come
together with poet Juana Adcock in this event
recorded for the 2020 Book Festival, to discuss these unavoidable
darknesses, and share the processes — limitations, challenges and
delights — of translating such a layered, densely playful work as
Hurricane Season. Brutal, unflinching, depraved and profane, this
is a story of small towns and violence, claustrophobia and rage.
Unique and unforgettable.