MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Addictive exposure of life in a Mexican drug cartel
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Kingdom Cons
by Yuri Herrera,
(An Other Stories, £8.99)
TO WRITE about Mexico and its narco problem today is to venture into a world full of paradoxes, deep complexities and ultimately violent power struggles.
That's what Yuri Herrera has done in a debut novel that unravels not only the recent history of the country but also how it is shaped by narco violence, patronage and corruption.
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