“Distinguished Mexican author, journalist, and historian Héctor Aguilar Camín explores a dissolute writer’s lifelong obsession with a nefarious temptress in this hardboiled tale of lust, police corruption and murder in Mexico City.
Day In, Day Out, originally published in 2016 as Toda La Vida, is Aguilar Camín’s second work of fiction to be translated into English. Journalist Chandler Thompson, who translated the work from Spanish, is also responsible for the English language translation of Camín’s acclaimed novel Death in Veracruz.
Narrated by a professional writer named Serrano, a man who does not digress, mince words or cleave to his biases, Day In, Day Out recounts his passionate, sporadic affair with Liliana Montoyo, a beautiful, promiscuous woman who makes a habit of reducing men to their primal state, turning them into violent and primitive lovers.
Day In, Day Out is a noteworthy crime noir full of deception, ulterior motives, unreliable memories and secrets and lies. It is also a compelling love story.
The unabashed and obsessively driven Serrano is both a victim and a menace, hopelessly drawn to a woman as unstable as himself. Empty but right-minded when apart, they are both unable to control their natural impulses or curb their self-destructive behaviour when together. Theirs is a perpetually dangerous, doomed relationship, full of passion and liberation, heartache and trouble.
The eloquent and philosophical Héctor Aguilar Camín, recipient of numerous national literary awards, has produced once again a masterful literary work that clearly shows us why he is one of Mexico’s most revered writers.”
My review of Day In, Day Out by Héctor Aguilar Camín is published today in the Lancashire Post, and syndicated to 25 newspapers across the UK.
