"A brief and majestic debut." --Matías Néspolo, El Mundo
Tochtli lives in a palace. He loves hats, samurai, guillotines, and dictionaries, and what he wants more than anything right now is a new pet for his private zoo: a pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia. But Tochtli is a child whose father is a drug baron on the verge of taking over a powerful cartel, and Tochtli is growing up in a luxury hideout that he shares with hit men, prostitutes, dealers, servants, and the odd corrupt politician or two. Long-listed for The Guardian First Book Award, Down the Rabbit Hole, a masterful and darkly comic first novel, is the chronicle of a delirious journey to grant a child's wish.
Literary translator: PAPYRUS by @irenevalmore, plus Norah Lange, Jorge Comensal, Elisa Victoria & more | Shed dweller | Time divider | Writing some things
@TheLincoln Virginia Woolf’s Flush, any of Jean Rhys’s novels, Juan Pablo Villalobos’s Down the Rabbit Hole, Horacio Castellanos Moyas’s Senselessness.
Artistic Director Audience Labs - theatre, tech & equitable futures. Visiting Senior Fellow @CulturalKings, Creative R&D @substrakt & Chair @FuturEverything
Thank you - such a rich list! Bought 4 which I was able to find on my favourite 2nd hand online bookstore: Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor The Miracleworker by Carmen Boullosa Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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July may be over but we’re still celebrating our beautiful new Villalobos editions: his new novel, Invasion of the Spirit People AND a new edition of Down the Rabbit Hole – our first ever title (both tr. @Rosenkrantz) 👽🦛🐇 You can buy the bundle here👇 https://t.co/7WbmTpFIQv https://t.co/Zhm7JIelCv
"Perfectly formed . . . Although easily devoured in one sitting, this clever little book is to be contemplated at length afterwards." --The Guardian
"Showing how a child absorbs violence without awareness that something is wrong is a tricky endeavor. Mr. Villalobos nails it." --Susannah Meadows, The New York Times
"Down the Rabbit Hole is a miniature high-speed experiment with perspective . . . A deliberate, wild attack on the conventions of literature." --Adam Thirlwell
"Juan Pablo Villalobos brilliantly encapsulates the chaos of a lawless existence in which, under the sway of drug lords, anything might happen and everything goes . . . Down the Rabbit Hole is an astonishing debut." --Lucy Popescu, The Independent
"If you're going to have an imprisoned child narrate a novel, then not so much as a word should be out of place. There are no such slips in Juan Pablo Villalobos's debut novella. We have here a control over the material which is so tight it is almost claustrophobic . . . This is a novel about failing to understand the bigger picture, and in its absence we can see it more clearly." --Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, Choice of the Week
"Villalobos creates Tochtli's half-corrupt, half-innocent world . . . with a brilliant, tragi-comic light touch." --Jane Shilling, Daily Mail
"Juan Pablo Villalobos has done a masterful job creating a child narrator . . . Down the Rabbit Hole is, on the surface, innocent, clever and lovable, but its implications are deeply disturbing . . . [it] is a remarkable reflection on the uncontrollable narco violence that defines contemporary Mexico. And it's an absolute must read." --The Coffin Factory
"The riveting voice of Tochtli grasps our hearts as we realize that this is a world where even fate can be governed by power. In this miasma of pathos and politics, Down the Rabbit Hole brilliantly incorporates dreams, loyalty and the loss of innocence." --Alice Tao, The Houston Chronicle
"With this book we have discovered Juan Pablo Villalobos, a linguistic virtuoso able to penetrate the elusive world of literature, shedding light on many of its mysteries." --José Antonio Aguado, Diari de Terrassa
"With Down the Rabbit Hole, Juan Pablo Villalobos has made a dramatic entrance into the literary world. It is a book that must be read for its great aesthetic value and darkly humorous tone. A book that throws a clear light on a dark subject." --Teresa García Díaz, Amerika