''Hurricane Season'' ( es, Temporada de huracanes) is the second novel by Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor, published in April 2017 by Literatura Random House. It is a nonlinear narrative and a

third-person narrative Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

. It focuses on the events surrounding the murder of the Witch of La Matosa, an impoverished fictional town in Mexico through which Melchor explores violence and

machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...

in Mexican society. The novel was a critical and commercial success, solidifying Melchor as one of the most acclaimed Latin American writers of her generation. It has been translated into German by Angelica Ammar, and into English by

Sophie Hughes Sophie Hughes (born 1986) is a British people, British literary translator who works chiefly from Spanish to English. She is known for her translations of contemporary writers such as Laia Jufresa, Rodrigo Hasbún, Alia Trabucco Zeran, Alia Tra ...

. The novel was awarded the 2019

International Booker Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize was announced ...

and the 2021

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...

, and longlisted for the 2020

National Book Award for Translated Literature The National Book Award for Translated Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards recognising outstanding literary works of translation into English administered by the National Book Foundation. This award was previously given from 1967 ...

Plot

One day, a group of children from the small town of ''La Matosa'' discover a decomposing corpse in a canal belonging to the Witch of the town. The Witch was a feared and respected woman who everyone turned to for help with their various problems. She lived in a large dilapidated house where she held parties with the village youth, to whom she paid money in exchange for sexual favors. A girl named Yesenia lived with her grandmother and her cousins near the Witch. Throughout her life, Yesenia felt rejected by her grandmother in favor of her cousin Maurilio (nicknamed Luismi). She hated Maurilio because, despite having become an alcoholic and drug addict, he was still the favorite of their grandmother. Luismi eventually moves in with his mother, Chabela, and his stepfather, Munra. Months later there are rumors that he has a wife and is expecting a child. On the day of the murder, Yesenia watches from her house and sees Munra's truck parked at the house of the Witch. She then sees Luismi with another man carrying a bundle to the vehicle. Yesenia informs the police of everything she saw, with the intention of having her cousin arrested. Munra is arrested after Yesenia's statement, but he claims not to know anything about the matter. He recalls days earlier having taken Luismi with his wife, Norma, to the hospital after she began bleeding and running a fever. They both quickly flee after child welfare services discover that Norma is thirteen years old. The next day, Munra finds Luismi in the courtyard observing a small object covered in blood that is buried in a hole in the ground. Munra is convinced that it is a work of witchcraft. After picking up Brando, a friend of Luismi, they pay Munra to take them to the Witch. Munra has been uncomfortable around the Witch ever since he found out she is a transgender woman. Luismi and Brando enter her house, and half an hour later they exit carrying out a bundle wrapped in cloth. Munra decides not to ask and takes them to the outskirts of town, where the boys dump the bundle in a canal. Norma originally arrived in ''La Matosa'' after fleeing her hometown, having becoming pregnant by her stepfather, who had raped her for years. Luismi finds her crying in a park and decides to take her home. The two begin a relationship, but Luismi almost never wants to have sex with her. When Chabela discovers that Norma is pregnant, she takes her to the Witch to give her a potion that will induce abortion. In the early morning, the pains are so strong that Norma crawls out of bed and has an abortion in the middle of the patio, which she buries in a hole. The days pass by and Norma's pain and bleeding do not stop, so she is taken to the hospital, where they discover that she is a minor. She is relentlessly reproached by the doctors, but she refuses to capitulate and incriminate Luismi. Brando's father abandoned him and his mother when Brando was a child. Brando could not put up with his mother's strong religiosity, so he joined the group of older boys in town, with whom he began to drink and take drugs at the Witch's house. They teach him that the best way to make money is by having sex with homosexuals, but Brando claims to be repulsed by the idea. When Brando hears Luismi sing, he begins to have erotic thoughts about him. He discovers that Luismi had an affair with one of the men who paid him. One day, when the two of them are drunk, they end up having sex. The next morning Luismi does not say anything, and Brando becomes obsessed with the incident. He fears that Luismi would disclose their affair to others, so Brando imagines ways to murder Luismi. Brando attacks the man with whom Luismi had a relationship. The man then disappears, leaving Luismi devastated. Months later, Luismi tells them that he now has a wife and that he plans to quit using drugs. Brando remains obsessed with Luismi and proposes that the two of them steal from the Witch, who supposedly has a stash of hidden treasure. Brando suggests escaping together, although in his mind he is still considering murdering Luismi. Luismi initially refuses, but after Norma's abortion he becomes convinced that everything is the work the Witch. Luismi goes with Brando and Munra to her house, where they beat the Witch until Brando savagely kills her. They uncover no treasure, so they return home, where they are arrested hours later. The police beat Brando to get information out of him about the treasure, but he has nothing. Days later, Munra and Luismi are taken to the cell, both with signs of having been severely beaten. Brando, full of love and hatred, is there awaiting Luismi.

Writing and structure

Melchor came up with the idea for the story after reading a ''crónica roja'' (crime report) about the murder of a woman whose body was discovered in a canal in rural

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

. The crime was committed by a man who claimed to have killed the woman because she attempted to bewitch him. Melchor initially planned to investigate the crime further and transform it into a

non-fiction novel The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherw ...

similar to the style of

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...

's '' In Cold Blood'' (1966). However, she chose not pursue the non-fiction style due to the dangers of traveling and researching in areas with a strong presence of drug trafficking organizations. Melchor instead decided to explore the story through fiction. The novel consists of eight chapters, the first and final two of which are relatively short in length. The other chapters are longer in length and feature detailed narration of several of the main characters of the novel. Each chapter focuses on one of the characters and their respective relationship with the murder of the Witch. The long chapters are made up of a single block of text without paragraph divisions and are written in a colloquial language that incorporates characteristics of the Mexican

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985) ...

. Melchor's narrative style was inspired by that of

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

in his novel ''

The Autumn of the Patriarch ''The Autumn of the Patriarch'' (original Spanish title: ''El otoño del patriarca'') is a novel written by Gabriel García Márquez in 1975. A "poem on the solitude of power" according to the author, the novel is a flowing tract on the life of a ...

'' (1975), which Melchor mentions in the acknowledgements section of ''Hurricane Season''. Melchor decided on the novel's style and structure after writing the first two chapters, which spontaneously took on the form of an intense narrative without paragraph breaks. From this, she made it a "technical challenge" to maintain the same narrative style throughout the rest of the work. Melchor was in a "very pessimistic" state of mind while writing the novel due the violence, misogyny and homophobia plaguing the region at that time. Melchor says ''Hurricane Season'' is, as a whole, largely about "being young and having no future—and feeling this incredible urge to escape through any means possible."

Reception

The book was critically acclaimed, particularly for its portrayal of the issues of contemporary Mexico, receiving several mentions as one of the best books of the year. The Spanish writer Jorge Carrión, writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', included the novel in his list of the best Ibero-American books of 2017 and described its style as "virtuous, oppressive." The Mexican novelist Antonio Ortuño, writing for ''

Letras Libres ''Letras Libres'' is a Spanish-language monthly literary magazine published in Mexico and Spain. History and profile ''Letras Libres'', printed since 1999 in Mexico and since 2001 in Spain, has an average of eighteen to twenty articles per issue ...

'', gave the novel a positive review, characterizing it as a "grand narrative, ambitious, rotund" and praising in particular Melchor's incorporation of Mexican slang and her exploration of the realities of Mexico. These same characteristics were praised by Bolivian writer Edmundo Paz Soldán in his review for '' La Tercera'', in which he wrote that within Melchor's prose "the profanity, the desire to name the obscene and the scatalogical, are revealed in all their explosive beauty." Paz Soldán also singled out the chapter focusing on Norma's relationship with her stepfather Pepe as being the best in the novel. Meanwhile, Dalia Cristerna, writing for '' El Universal'', described the novel as a testimony to the violence, corruption and poverty experienced by marginalized sectors of society. The review in the British newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', written by Anthony Cummins, described the novel as "intense and inventive" and as "a brutal portrait of small-town claustrophobia, in which machismo is a prison and corruption isn't just institutional but domestic." Cummins referred largely to the violence of the plot, which he called "near-dystopian", principally in the treatment received by women in relation to the powers reserved men. These characteristics were also highlighted in the review by '' Kirkus Reviews'', who called it "tough stuff but not gratuitously so." The review particularly praised the "two virtuoso chapters" which focus on Norma and Brando as underscoring "the depth of feeling and disquieting intensity Melchor is capable of." Regarding Melchor, ''Kirkus Reviews'' concluded that she has "deep reserves of talent and nerve." Melchor's treatment of violence in the novel was a consistent emphasis by the majority of critics. Amanda Dennis, in a review written in the ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...

'', asserted that several of the scenes were so brutal that they made

and

Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...

seem tame. Dennis also proclaimed that it was precisely Melchor's "willingness to explode a violent act into multiple perspectives, to look at it again and again from different angles (perpetrator, bystander, accomplice)" that made the novel "feel weightier than most contemporary fiction." The review of ''

'', written by Julian Lucas, called the novel "impressive", referring to the murder of the Witch as an event that Melchor "captures in language as though distilling venom." Angelica Ammar's German translation of the novel, titled ''Saison der Wirbelstürme'', won the 2019

International Literature Award International Literature Award (''German'': Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt) is a German literary award for international prose translated into German for the first time. At the end of 2019, the Spanish newspaper '' El País'' ranked ''Hurricane Season'' as 28th on its list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.

Publication history

* * * * *

Awards and nominations

* Winner, 2019

* Shortlist, 2021

* Longlist, 2020

Film adaptation

The novel is set to be adapted into a film, produced by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

and directed by Elisa Miller.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurricane Season 2017 novels Mexican novels 2017 in Mexico 2017 LGBT-related literary works 2010s LGBT novels Novels about violence against women Violence against trans women Nonlinear narrative novels Third-person narrative novels Novels set in Mexico Novels with transgender themes Novels with gay themes LGBT culture in Mexico Witchcraft in written fiction Spanish-language novels Random House books