Additional information
by Juan Pablo Villalobos (Author), Daniel Hahn (Translator)
A comic thriller where, too many craft beers and one crappy punch later, a dutiful trip back home to family spirals into a baffling whirlwind of murder, pills and fraud.
After many peaceful years abroad, JP has returned home to Mexico to visit family and help care for his elderly mother. Instead, however, he finds himself at a bar, his fist inches from the face of Everardo, his sort-of childhood friend. He lands the blow and runs home. But when Everardo turns up dead the next morning, JP soon finds himself blamed for a murder that he (probably) didn't commit. What's going on? Can Lagos really be more full of drugs, extortion, and fraud than when he left? Why is everyone offering him pills? How's he ever going to pay for his mother's medical treatment? It wasn't even that good a punch!Weaving outright hilarity with wry tenderness, The Past Pursues Us is a fast-paced and funny whodunit that lovingly speaks to the stories we tell ourselves about home: about what changes, what doesn't, and what should.Author Biography
Juan Pablo Villalobos was born in Mexico in 1973. He's the author of the novels Down the Rabbit Hole (shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Award), Quesadillas, I'll Sell You a Dog, I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me and The Invasion of the Spirit People, and of the non-fiction book The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Who Dream of Crossing the Border. His books have been translated into more than 15 languages. Down the Rabbit Hole and I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me were adapted for film and premiered on Netflix. Since 2003, he has lived abroad. At the moment, he lives in Barcelona, where he teaches writing.
Daniel Hahn lives in the UK and translates from Portuguese, Spanish and French. His translations have won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award and been shortlisted for the Booker International Prize.
