The Past Pursues Us Like Detectives, Debt Collectors, Thieves

Name: The Past Pursues Us Like Detectives, Debt Collectors, Thieves
Price: 46.95 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781916751453

Juan Pablo Villalobos, Daniel Hahn

$46.95

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

And Other Stories
28 October 2026

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Fiction in translation

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.

By: Juan Pablo Villalobos
Translated by: Daniel Hahn
Imprint: And Other Stories
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
Weight: 336g
ISBN: 9781916751453
ISBN 10: 1916751458
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 28 October 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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.

Reviews for The Past Pursues Us Like Detectives, Debt Collectors, Thieves

Praise for The Past Pursues Us: ""What an achievement. What seems like a light narrative becomes a reflection on how arriving home is already a form of leaving.""--El PeriódicoPraise for Villalobos: ""An eccentric hybrid, combining pulpy crime fiction . . . with avant-garde archness. Villalobos's take is refreshingly exuberant."" --Houman Barekat, The Guardian ""A postmodern thriller and intellectual satire that fizzes with verbal gusto and black humour."" --Max Liu, The i ""A wild-eyed, motor-powered, hilarious blast about kidnapping, gangsters and political corruption."" --Jane Graham, Big Issue""So propulsive it's nearly impossible to stop reading . . . This is a hilarious novel, and it's brilliant and bittersweet, too, in surprising ways. Pitch-perfect from start to finish."" --Kirkus, starred review""Down the Rabbit Hole is a miniature high-speed experiment with perspective . . . a deliberate, wild attack on the conventions of literature."" --Adam Thirlwell