Your novel deals with violence against women who are caught up in poverty, perverted sexuality and superstition. In Mexico's corruption-plagued state of Veracruz, the police was also found to be implicated in forced disappearances Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo/File/R. So I tried to console myself and decided to do something just as interesting through fiction, by inventing the inner life of those people who participated in the crime.

I could have done it but I didn't want to put myself in danger. A stranger asking awkward questions would be noticed right away. But it was difficult to travel to that little village because the narcos' hideouts were in these small villages. I wanted to go to the place where the body was found and interview people. I was stunned by this and I just wanted to write the story behind the crime.ĭid you plan it as a novel to start out with?Īt first I wanted to do something like In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I was surprised because the journalist told the story in a way that made it sound normal to think that a crime could be motivated by witchcraft… The murderer had killed the witch because she was doing witchcraft to make him fall back in love with her. And I saw this small newspaper chronicle that talked about a person found dead in a canal in a small village next to where I was.

Much of the news had to do with violence and crime in the area - crimes of passion committed by normal people. 'The titular hurricanes not only hint at the prevailing conditions in the town, but, thanks to the power of the author's language, even seem to descend upon us.'ĭeutsche Welle: What inspired your story?įernanda Melchor: When I was living in Veracruz, I worked for a social communications office of my university, and we got all the local and regional papers from Veracruz. The novel investigates the disappearance of a woman known as The Witch: 'In thrilling, furious sentences, Fernanda Melchor tells the story of a femicide in rural Mexico,' the jury said. The German version of 'Hurricane Season' Image: Wagenbach Verlag Translated into German by Angelica Ammar as Saison der Wirbelstürme, it won on June 18 the International Literature Award of the Haus der Kulturen, a prize of €35,000 ($39,000) shared by the author and the translator. Fernanda Melchor's Temporada de huracanes ( Hurricane Season the English translation is to be released later this year) was featured as one of Mexico's best novels in 2017 the writer was also listed as one of the country's top authors under 40.

Temporada de huracanes book