“In an odyssey of relentless human cruelty, Emiliano Monge, one of the many linguistically adroit writers currently at work in what is an exciting era for Mexican fiction, spares no one. That he can succeed in generating any sympathy for his frenetic lovers is entirely due to the ferocious eloquence of his prose, which has been magnificently well served by translator Frank Wynne’s Miltonic register. Filtered through a wry, if urgent, continuous present tense, it conveys the inhumanity of the jungle and desert landscapes…Monge’s realist, deadly topical fiction is a weighty metaphor for our world gone mad. His characters, however depraved, often reveal traces of empathy, self-doubt, even suppressed horror.”
Eileen Battersby, The Observer
“Propulsive, lyrical, and often savage.”
Ellie Robins, Times Literary Supplement
“From the very first pages of Among the Lost, we’re engaged, and compromised…It’s a heady reading experience…Richly poetic…Monge is one of the most talented and interesting young novelists writing from today’s Mexico.”
Daniel Hahn, Spectator
“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
“An important insight into the horrific realities of people-trafficking in South America…facilitated by the accomplished translation by Frank Wynne…In an innovative technique that bears vague resemblance to Joyce, Monge intersperses his narrative with direct emotive accounts from migrants and asylum-seekers. Some of these passages are difficult to read. They are loaded with pathos and sentiment and are important emblems of truths amid the violence and moral corruption throughout novel…Monge exposes these truths in stories that are not easy to shirk away from, with remarkable linguistic skill. 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.”
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.” STARRED REVIEW
Shoba 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
“This is a terrifying book, one that never stops confronting its readers ... it’s clear that [Monge’s] a skilful writer with a distinct worldview.”
Kevin Canfield, World Literature Today
Praise for Emiliano Monge:
“Here is Mexico, its landscape, its violence, in a high voltage prose that has its roots in the best literature of its country: Rulfo, Fuentes, Sada. And for such a young writer Monge's language and ideas are strikingly well wrought and mature.”
Rafael Chirbes
Praise for Emiliano Monge:
“A powerful and original voice.”
Patricio Pron, Letras Libras
Praise for Emiliano Monge:
“Rarely can we witness literature like this.”
Rolling Stone
Praise for Emiliano Monge:
“Monge's use of grim humor recalls that of works such as Bolaño's 2666 and McCarthy's The Crossing.”
Tom Bunstead, TLS
Praise for Emiliano Monge:
“I am sure that there is no other journalistic text that honors the voices of the migrants as much as this novel does. A writing that confronts. Poetry in the carrion.”
Lydia Cacho, author of Slavery Inc.
