Description
The novel is about Juan Pablo Villalobos, a Mexican student who is about to fly to Barcelona on a scholarship when he is kidnapped by thugs and whisked away to a basement. The thugs are threatening his cousin, a wannabe entrepreneur, with violence if he does not work for them. Juan Pablo agrees to work for them, but only if he can make Laia, the daughter of a corrupt politician, fall in love with him. He accepts the job, but not before the crime boss has forced him into a discussion on the limits of humor in literature.
'I don't expect anyone to believe me,' warns the narrator of this novel, a Mexican student called Juan Pablo Villalobos. He is about to fly to Barcelona on a scholarship when he's kidnapped in a bookshop and whisked away by thugs to a basement. The gangsters are threatening his cousin-a wannabe entrepreneur known to some as 'Projects' and to others as 'dickhead' - who is gagged and tied to a chair. The thugs say Juan Pablo must work for them. His mission? To make Laia, the daughter of a corrupt politician, fall in love with him. He accepts . . . though not before the crime boss has forced him at gunpoint into a discussion on the limits of humour in literature. Part campus novel, part gangster thriller, I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me is Villalobos at his best. Exuberantly foul-mouthed and intellectually agile, this hugely entertaining novel finds the light side of difficult subjects - immigration, corruption, family loyalty and love - in a world where the difference between comedy and tragedy depends entirely on who's telling the joke.
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