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flipoftheflap's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The more I think about the book the more I am annoyed by it. The author clearly wants you to feel some sort of sympathy for the main characters, but I could not care less about them. The moment that Estela, pimps out a child to a police official I lost any sympathy I had for her. I know that he wants to make some commentary about cycles of violence, but its so hard to care about these cycles of violence and abuse that perpetuate human trafficking when the topic is human trafficking. At first I didn't even realize that he inputted testimonies from people who were trafficked until much later. It was so hard to read precisely because of these testimonies that are explicit in the suffering they face including rape. If Monge's goal was to bring attention the suffering that trafficking victims go through then he accomplished it; but I honestly don't even know what the point of this work is besides the suffering. I did read a translation, so my understanding could be hampered from all that but I doubt I could have gained better insight if I read it in Spanish.
scribepub's review against another edition
This is a book of unbearable beauty and affliction. It is written with the lucidity of someone who has opened his eyes and refused to shut them again. The book’s power is not only in what it says, but in the silences that it leaves the reader’s conscience to grapple with.
Yuri Herrera
Among the Lost is masterly. Its rhythm and syntax form an unforgettable, multilayered requiem for our battered region.
Valeria Luiselli
It’s a brilliantly composed, dramatic and unflinching evocation of a world riven by endemic violence and extreme feeling, and an astute (if apocalyptic) road trip into the psychology of abuse.
Cameron Woodhead, The Age
A fierce love story … Monge’s narrative plants the reader in this dirty and tumultuous foreign land in a way that is artistically and cleverly shackling, and the resultant piece is an important insight into the horrific realities of people-trafficking in South America … An important read.
Ronan Gerrard, The London Magazine
Emiliano Monge’s concussive new novel is a love story. It’s also a blood-drenched journey through a world where kindness has been obliterated and almost every moral code shredded … its emotional ferocity is astonishing. You feel appalled, compromised, profoundly moved.You wish the US President would read it. Or read, full stop.’
David Hill, Weekend Herald
A timely novel of immigration that is as beautiful as it is horrific. It is a multilayered, emotionally complex artistic triumph.
Rebecca Hussey, Foreword Reviews
A dark vision of life on the border between the inferno and an imagined paradise, this book paints an all too real picture of what people will do for a new life. FOUR STARS
Mitch Mott, Adelaide Advertiser
In a remarkable literary feat, this tale of the dire events of one day illuminates the past, the present, and the future. While many questions remain unanswered at the end, this is a comprehensive drama of the human potential for violence and dreams in a fractured land.
Shoot Viswanathan, Booklist
The language in Among the Lost is both striking and strikingly easy to read … He channels the full spectrum of written expression, and the result hits the trifecta: beautiful, fast-paced, and completely his own.
Lily Meyer, NPR
A cunning and often powerful novel.
Adam Rivett, Weekend Australian
To read Among the Lost is to be trapped in, to borrow another Mongian phrase, a “cage of light” — a Goyaesque picture of the Central American exodus, and the horrors some migrants pass through along the transit routes in Mexico.
The Nation
This is one of the darkest books I have ever read, and one of the most powerful ... an emotionally-wrenching experience and also essential reading for those who want to think deeply about migration and human rights.
Bookriot
Blending a sense of the archetypal with a deeply contemporary story, Among the Lost is an utterly harrowing read that takes numerous artistic and structural risks across its pages ... It’s a grand and unsettling work.
Words Without Borders, ‘The Watchlist: June 2019’
Atmospheric and chilling.
Mark Athitakis, On the Seawall
Yuri Herrera
Among the Lost is masterly. Its rhythm and syntax form an unforgettable, multilayered requiem for our battered region.
Valeria Luiselli
It’s a brilliantly composed, dramatic and unflinching evocation of a world riven by endemic violence and extreme feeling, and an astute (if apocalyptic) road trip into the psychology of abuse.
Cameron Woodhead, The Age
A fierce love story … Monge’s narrative plants the reader in this dirty and tumultuous foreign land in a way that is artistically and cleverly shackling, and the resultant piece is an important insight into the horrific realities of people-trafficking in South America … An important read.
Ronan Gerrard, The London Magazine
Emiliano Monge’s concussive new novel is a love story. It’s also a blood-drenched journey through a world where kindness has been obliterated and almost every moral code shredded … its emotional ferocity is astonishing. You feel appalled, compromised, profoundly moved.You wish the US President would read it. Or read, full stop.’
David Hill, Weekend Herald
A timely novel of immigration that is as beautiful as it is horrific. It is a multilayered, emotionally complex artistic triumph.
Rebecca Hussey, Foreword Reviews
A dark vision of life on the border between the inferno and an imagined paradise, this book paints an all too real picture of what people will do for a new life. FOUR STARS
Mitch Mott, Adelaide Advertiser
In a remarkable literary feat, this tale of the dire events of one day illuminates the past, the present, and the future. While many questions remain unanswered at the end, this is a comprehensive drama of the human potential for violence and dreams in a fractured land.
Shoot Viswanathan, Booklist
The language in Among the Lost is both striking and strikingly easy to read … He channels the full spectrum of written expression, and the result hits the trifecta: beautiful, fast-paced, and completely his own.
Lily Meyer, NPR
A cunning and often powerful novel.
Adam Rivett, Weekend Australian
To read Among the Lost is to be trapped in, to borrow another Mongian phrase, a “cage of light” — a Goyaesque picture of the Central American exodus, and the horrors some migrants pass through along the transit routes in Mexico.
The Nation
This is one of the darkest books I have ever read, and one of the most powerful ... an emotionally-wrenching experience and also essential reading for those who want to think deeply about migration and human rights.
Bookriot
Blending a sense of the archetypal with a deeply contemporary story, Among the Lost is an utterly harrowing read that takes numerous artistic and structural risks across its pages ... It’s a grand and unsettling work.
Words Without Borders, ‘The Watchlist: June 2019’
Atmospheric and chilling.
Mark Athitakis, On the Seawall
zakyya's review against another edition
the trafficking and severe abuse of illegal immigrants, written flippantly from the POV of the traffickers. Nauseating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Kidnapping, Vomit, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Suicide, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Violence, Murder, Blood, Confinement, Death, and Sexual violence
abookishtype's review against another edition
3.0
Emiliano Monge’s Among the Lost (solidly translated by Frank Wynne) is a challenging read. I’ll admit that I considered giving up on this book because it was so harrowing, especially since it contains excerpts from people who have been taken by coyotes and human traffickers in Central America. But I felt like I owed it to the victims to listen by finishing the book. So many people didn’t survive to tell their stories. Monge’s novel shows the perspective of two human traffickers, Epitafio and Estela, and floods readers with information that we have to piece together to figure out what’s going on as one of their runs turns into an apocalyptic disaster...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
jjw's review
5.0
Love. What is it? Who can feel it? Under what conditions does love cease to exist? Should bad people who do terrible things be able to feel love, and can we as outsiders comprehend that despite their callous violence Epitafio and Estela are, in fact, in love. This book is about love. Unlike 99% of other love stories, you won’t like the main characters. You’ll hate them. They’re stupid. They’re disgusting. They’re literal human traffickers. But despite this they love. And you can’t help but feel some warmth in the dark dark world that Monge creates.
Not for the faint of heart, the weaving – almost dreamlike – prose intersperses real quotes from people who have been trafficked along side quotes from Dante’s Inferno. The effect is like a punch in the gut as the relentless narrative drags you from the back of a truck driving through there jungle to rocky outcrop on a mountain pass to a literal slaughter yard and back and forth and into and out of the thoughts of all the characters. It’s tiring. And that’s the point.
I spoke briefly with Monge at an event and he was an exceedingly thoughtful and caring person and that shines through this brutal book.
Not for the faint of heart, the weaving – almost dreamlike – prose intersperses real quotes from people who have been trafficked along side quotes from Dante’s Inferno. The effect is like a punch in the gut as the relentless narrative drags you from the back of a truck driving through there jungle to rocky outcrop on a mountain pass to a literal slaughter yard and back and forth and into and out of the thoughts of all the characters. It’s tiring. And that’s the point.
I spoke briefly with Monge at an event and he was an exceedingly thoughtful and caring person and that shines through this brutal book.
rebeccahussey's review
This is one of the darkest books I have ever read, and one of the most powerful. It takes place in an unnamed country that we know is Mexico and tells the story of two human traffickers. They are terrible people who do terrible things, but we also see how they have been victimized by other terrible people, and while it’s impossible to sympathize with them, it’s possible to understand why they are the way they are. The story covers one day as the protagonists try to move their victims across a harsh but gorgeously-evoked landscape. The writing in this novel is exquisite. Monge explicitly invokes Dante and includes quotations and paraphrases from the Divine Comedy. He also includes the words of real-life Central American migrants. This novel is an emotionally-wrenching experience and also essential reading for those who want to think deeply about migration and human rights.
https://bookriot.com/2019/06/01/june-indie-press-releases/
https://bookriot.com/2019/06/01/june-indie-press-releases/
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