Meet the author: Juan Pablo Villalobos

Location
Category
Price
discount
Language
Mexican author Juan Pablo Villalobos’s often hilarious novels combine two genres that rarely meet elsewhere: avant-garde literature and pulp fiction. Melissa Giardina wants to know all about this popular entertainment of the highest order that will make you laugh.
Juan Pablo Villalobos’s fifth novel, Invasion of the Spirit People, reads like a fable. It is a sci-fi pulp novel in which xenophobia and racism are fought with satire and absurdity. In an unnamed city colonized by an unnamed world power, we follow the daily worries of Gastón, an immigrant.
He makes a living selling forgotten vegetables to exclusive restaurants. His dog – named Kitten – has terminal cancer and his best friend Max is depressed now that he has had to close his restaurant. Max’s son, Arctic explorer Pol, can offer little help now that he has to go on a mission to the North Pole. All this forces Gastón to embark on a triple quest. He has to find someone to put his dog to sleep in a caring way; he has to find a place to open a new restaurant with Max; and he has to find out if there is any truth to the message Pol has sent him: that all human life is just a by-product of an alien attempt at colonization … and that the aliens are planning a return.
about the author
Juan Pablo Villalobos (b. 1973) was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1973. He studied marketing and Spanish literature, before working as a market researcher, and writing travel stories and literary and film criticism. He has researched topics as diverse as the influence of the avant-garde on the work of César Aira and the flexibility of pipelines for electrical installations. His books include his Guardian First Book Award-shortlisted debut Down the Rabbit Hole, as well as Quesadillas and I’ll Sell You a Dog. He is married with two Mexican-Brazilian-Italian-Catalan children. Invasion of the Spirit people is his most recent novel.
about the moderator
Melissa Giardina (b. 1986) is the face of Vindetta!, a company that brings together everything Melissa loves to do most: moderating, interviewing and translating. She is also a voracious reader, keen on beauty and wonder. She worked as a bookseller for many years. Her roots are in Brussels but she lives and reads in Ghent.
ORG. Passa Porta, Accion Cultural España, Ambassade van Mexico, Instituto Cervantes
picture juan pablo villalobos © juan lemus
Coming soon at

Brusselse waterverhalen: stadswandeling
Audiomaker Tibo Renodeyn neemt je mee voor een korte wandeling in het historische centrum van Brussel. Daar vertelt hij je over zijn fascinatie voor bronnen, beken en fonteinen in de stad.

généalogies
La Française Louise Bentkowski (Constellucination) et la Québécoise Kristina Gauthier-Landry (Le Don) entremêlent leurs premiers romans pour une lecture à deux voix.

Meet the author: Tine Høeg
A conversation with the Danish author of Memorial, 29 June, a novel that allows the reader to joint in writing the story.