An anthology from twenty Mexican writers under forty, paired with twenty British translators.

México 20 is an eclectic mix of writing, where some pieces are less than ten pages long while others are closer to thirty, and some were written in really interesting ways. They are mostly short stories, sometimes they are extracts from a larger piece of the authors work, but there’s some non-fiction too, in fact the first piece is an essay about what the film Blade Runner means to the author, Juan Pablo Anaya.

Some of my favourite stories or pieces of writing are History by Antonio Ortuño, Empty Set by Verónica Gerber Bicecci and Lights in the Sky by Fernanda Melchor. I liked how History was written as it was like small snapshots into the main characters thoughts as well as a small insight into the history of Mexico. Empty Set features sketches that help show how the main character sees the world while Lights in the Sky is about someone who really believed in aliens for a short while.

What I liked about this collection was how varied the subject matter. Some felt like the authors memoirs, while others are vivid and shocking. Meth Z by Gerardo Arana was the weirdest one – the main character is high on drugs and the way he see’s the world is seriously bizarre and then the story almost became a story, inside a story and it was a little hard to follow. Some stories are rather explicit with The Whole Big Truth by Eduardo Montagner and The Liturgy of the Body by Eduardo Rabasa both featuring scenes of a sexual nature.

Some stories I found more accessible and quicker to read than others. This could be down to the stories themselves and what their subject was or it might be because I liked the way different translators translated the works, I’m not sure. I generally enjoyed the stories that were more grounded and that had a family-element, I think that’s because dysfunctional families are something we can all relate to.

México 20 is an interesting collection of works and a nice taster of twenty different writers.