Among the Lost
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About this ebook
In the desolate wastelands between the sierra and the jungle, under an all-seeing, unforgiving sun, a single day unfolds as relentlessly as those that have gone before. People are trafficked and brutalised, illegal migrants are cheated of their money, their dreams, their very names even as countless others scrabble to cross the border, trying to reach a land they call El Paraíso.
In this grim inferno, a fierce love has blossomed — one that was born in pain and cruelty, and one that will live or die on this day. Estela and Epitafio too were trafficked, they grew together in the brutal orphanage, fell in love, but were ripped apart. They have played an ugly role in the very system that abused them, and done the bidding of the brutal old priest for too long. They have traded in migrants, put children to work as slaves, hacked off limbs and lives without a thought, though they have never forgotten the memory of their own shackles.
Like the immigrants whose hopes they extinguish, they long to be free; free to be together and alone. Here in an unnamed land that could be a Mexico reimagined by Breughel and Dante, on the border between purgatory and inferno, where Paradise is the mouth of hell and cruelty the only currency, lives are spent, bartered and indentured for it. Must all be bankrupt among the lost?
Emiliano Monge
Emiliano Monge (México, 1978) es politólogo y escritor. Ha publicado los libros de relatos Arrastrar esa sombra (2008), finalista del Premio Antonin Artaud y La superficie más honda (2017); las novelas El cielo árido (2012), ganadora del XXVIII Premio Jaén de Novela y del Premio Otras Voces, Otros Ámbitos, Las tierras arrasadas (2015) fue ganadora del Premio Iberoamericano de Novela Elena Poniatowska y del English PEN Award, y No contar todo (2018) recibió el Premio Bellas Artes de Narrativa. En 2011 fue reconocido por la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara como uno de los 25 escritores más importantes de América Latina, el Hay Festival y el British Council lo seleccionaron entre los 20 escritores mexicanos imprescindibles y en 2017 fue seleccionado como uno de los 39 mejores escritores latinoamericanos menores de 39 años. Es colaborador habitual del diario El País.
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Reviews for Among the Lost
15 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5What a weird book. I requested an ARC of the English translation from a giveaway listed on Library Thing, but I probably should have skipped this one. The whole story, and all the characters were just too vague. I liked the idea of the premise, which was inspired by the Divine Comedy by Dante. But nothing was explained well enough that I fully understood what was going on. Every character was an utterly despicable specimen, and because I didn't understand who they were, or what led them to become who they were I didn't care what ended up happening to any of them.I'm having a heck of time trying to describe this book, partly because I didn't care what happened in it, and partly because it was so oddly told. The gist of the story was a day in the life of a group of human traffickers. As in people who steal other people, then torture them into submission, then sell them for money. Oh, and rape all the women along the way as the mood strikes them. The setting is a kind of hazy mashup of many stereotypes of Central American settings. There's rocky deserts. A dense jungle. A lot of dust. Bad roads. People traveling in a northward direction seeking El Paraiso, but finding only El Infierno. I gather much of this story was inspired by true events, as throughout the story there are descriptions of the trials and tortures of people who are desperate to leave their Infiernos for even a glimmer of Paraisos. These were taken from interviews conducted by the author, Emiliano Monge who is a journalist in Mexico. It's possible that he was trying to give humanity to the captors of these people, but he didn't give enough of a backstory for it to matter.I didn't hate reading this book, but it did feel like a chore to get through. I also probably wouldn't recommend this to people since it seems so inaccessible. The good thing about this book is that it pulls no punches with describing the horrors faced by those who we in the United States call "undocumented immigrants." If I thought it might a shine a real light on the things these people face I might force people to read it, but it just doesn't hit that note.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There are times when I finish a book and wonder what the hell I just read---was it truly brilliant or merely crap adorned with random acts of brilliancy?In the case of Among the Lost by Emiliano Monge, I can honestly say I'm not sure, but I liked it.The stark narrative involves human trafficking and illegal immigration, a hot-button issue nowadays. Among the Lost does not go into the politics, rather it goes to the underbelly, the reality that mainstream media usually doesn't acknowledge. There are those wishing for a better life and willing to pay, only to find out their life is payment. There are the traffickers and their "employees" and a sadistic priest as well. Strangely enough, there is also a love story between two of those who "survived" and now find themselves wanting the same freedom that those they kidnap and trade wanted as well.Surreal, disturbing, and dark. And I totally recommend.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A really good book. Human traffickers somewhere in Central America--maybe Mexico capturing groups of migrants to sell into slavery. The traffickers themselves started out as migrants/slaves pretty much the same. It's very intense and there's kind of a weird love angle to it but mixed in is all kinds of violence and rage and a Roman Catholic priest who pulls a lot of the strings and cops/guns for hire. Before I was done with the book I checked out Emiliano Monge and he has one other book in translation besides this and I bought it which is to say I'd recommend reading Among the Lost...but it's not a happy story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Among the Lost was a unique story about modern day human trafficking. The interwoven love story between the two, anti-hero traffickers, however, fell flat for me. Although, their actions were despicable, I still should have been able to empathize with them on some level but I never did. In fact, I never connected with any of the characters except for Mauseleo. In addition, the climax didn't quite meet the level of build-up given beforehand; and the conclusion left a few unanswered questions. On a positive note, the action propelled the story at a good pace and I did appreciate the lyrical writing style. I would definitely read another book by Monge.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a compelling story about the lives broken, twisted, and ended by the practice of human trafficking around the U.S./Mexico border. The two protagonists, Epitafio and Estela, were themselves trafficked as children. Given to an orphanage run by a corrupt Catholic priest, they were constantly abused and raised to continue the human trafficking trade.The action of the story takes place over the course of a typical day. It begins with them intercepting a large group of migrants. They kill some and lock the rest into a few trailers and set out to sell them. Epitafio and Estela are in love, they have been in love their whole life, but the priest who raised them would not allow them to be together. Epitafio had been married to another woman that he did not love.Estela herself has a secret. She knows that the priest is up to something. She's tried telling Epitafio but he's not ready to abandon the life they have. But Estela hopes to convince him tonight to run away with her. She is pregnant, but more importantly, she's knows that they are likely to be betrayed soon.Still, neither of them realizes that tonight is the night everything will change. A plan is already underway to kill Estela and overthrow Epitafio. In this dark night, as they drive through the jungle and over the mountains with trailers full of suffering people, our two protagonists will lose their friends one by one. This is a complex story interspersed with actual accounts of trafficked migrants and excerpts from Dante's Inferno. It's a powerful story of suffering and cruelty acted out in generational cycle. A dark book about the trauma humanity can inflict on itself.