I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me

"I don't 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 he's kidnapped in a bookshop and whisked away by thugs to a basement. The gangsters are threatening his cousin--a wannabe entrepreneur known to some as "Projects" and to others as "dickhead"--who 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 Don't 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 subjects--immigration, corruption, family loyalty and love--in a world where the difference between comedy and tragedy depends entirely on who's telling the joke.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: And Other Stories
Published: 05/05/2020
ISBN: 9781911508489
Pages: 356
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 7.70h x 5.10w x 1.10d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2020 pg. 48
Publishers Weekly 03/30/2020