Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter

Aura Xilonen

The Gringo Champion

Cover: The Gringo Champion - Aura Xilonen

Aura Xilonen

The Gringo Champion

2017, pp. 320, Paper
ISBN: 9781609453657
Translated by: Andrea Rosenberg
Region: Mexico
Available as ebook Available as ebook Available as ebook
£ 11.99
Where to buy Where to buy Where to buy
Read an excerpt Read an excerpt Read an excerpt

The book

Million Dollar Baby meets The Brief Life of Oscar Wao

Liborio has to leave Mexico, a land that has taught him little more than a keen instinct for survival. He crosses the Rio Bravo, like so many others, to reach “the promised land.” And in a barrio like any other, in some gringo city, this illegal immigrant tells his story. As Liborio narrates his memories we discover a childhood scarred by malnutrition and abandonment, a youth during which he has nothing to lose. In his new home, he finds a job at a bookstore, where of all places he begins to doubt the usefulness of words. He falls in love with a woman so intensely that his fantasies of her verge on obsession. And, finally, he finds himself on a path that just might save him: he becomes a boxer.
Liborio’s story is constructed in a dazzling language that reflects the particular culture of border towns and expresses both resistance and fascination. This is a migrants’ story of deracination, loneliness, fear, and, finally, love – a thoroughly contemporary take on the picaresque novel – told in sparkling, innovative prose.

The author

Aura Xilonen
Aura Xilonen is a novelist and filmmaker. She won the 2015 Premio Mauricio Achar for her first novel, Gringo Champion, published in Mexico under a pseudonym when she was just 19.

Reviews

Books by region

  • Cover: The Passenger: Mexico - AA.VV.

    AA.VV.

    The Passenger: Mexico

    2023, pp. 192, £ 18.99
    Brimming with intricate research and enduring wonder, The Passenger is a love-letter to global travel

More suggestions

  • Cover: Tatà - Valérie Perrin

    Valérie Perrin

    Tatà

    2026, pp. 592, £ 18.99
    The new novel by the international bestselling author of Fresh Water for Flowers
  • Cover: A Mask the Colour of the Sky - Basim Khandaqji

    Basim Khandaqji

    A Mask the Colour of the Sky

    2026, pp. 240, £ 14.99
    A novel of identity and resistance from one of Palestine’s most striking literary voices—written entirely from behind bars
  • Cover: Tangerinn - Emanuela Anechoum

    Emanuela Anechoum

    Tangerinn

    2026, pp. 256, £ 14.99
    The novel for a displaced generation
  • Cover: Mass Mothering - Sarah Bruni

    Sarah Bruni

    Mass Mothering

    2026, pp. 255, £ 12.99
    A haunting, indelible novel of collective grief, resistance, and the life-affirming virtue of testimony
  • Cover: Madelaine Before The Dawn - Sandrine Collette

    Sandrine Collette

    Madelaine Before The Dawn

    2026, pp. 208, £ 12.99
    A spellbinding tale of female defiance and rage
  • Cover: Floodlines - Saleem Haddad

    Saleem Haddad

    Floodlines

    2026, pp. 350, £ 14.99
    A sweeping, multi-generational novel that traces the fractured bonds between three Iraqi-British sisters