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.