The unforgettable characters in Josh Barkan’s astonishing and beautiful story collection—chef, architect, nurse, high school teacher, painter, beauty queen, classical bass player, plastic surgeon, businessman, mime—are simply trying to lead their lives and steer clear of violence. Yet, inevitably, crime has a way of intruding on their lives all the same. A surgeon finds himself forced into performing a risky procedure on a narco killer. A teacher struggles to protect lovestruck students whose forbidden romance has put them in mortal peril. A painter’s freewheeling ways land him in the back of a kidnapper’s car. Again and again, the walls between “ordinary life” and cartel violence are shown to be paper thin, and when they collapse the consequences are life-changing.   These are stories about transformation and danger, passion and heartbreak, terror and triumph. They are funny, deeply moving, and stunningly well-crafted, and they tap into the most universal and enduring human experiences:  love even in the face of danger and loss, the struggle to grow and keep faith amidst hardship and conflict, and the pursuit of authenticity and courage over apathy and oppression. With unflinching honesty and exquisite tenderness, Josh Barkan masterfully introduces us to characters that are full of life, marking the arrival of a new and essential voice in American fiction. Selected as a Best Book of 2017 by Library Journal “I kind of think the purpose of life is to sing,” muses an American picked up by thugs in “The Kidnapping.” “I don’t mean, literally, always to sing, but to sing metaphorically, to sing in some way of beauty, to raise the spirits of our voices in hope.” In that sense, “Mexico” is an ensemble performance for which Barkan composed all of the parts . - The New York Times Book Review “These tales . . . are told with confidence and precision . . . As a whole, the book follows a smooth, symphonic arc, rising with the dark whimsy of ‘The Chef and El Chapo’. . .  Barkan works without the deceptions of 21st century cerebral irony. Behind the scenes lies a sophisticated intelligence that yields to a sense of humanity . The author identifies closely with the suffering of his characters . . . powerful epiphanies are the treasures buried within ‘Mexico .’”  - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  " Barkan’s journalistic qualities shine through in each piece. He writes in first person, as if he interviewed each character and they relayed their story to him, yet he takes a fiction writer’s care in crafting each story. Fortunately for the reader, Barkan not only reveals the violent external world of Mexico, but also the struggle in each character’s inner world." - Rain Taxi “These stories are gripping… I had to blink and look away occasionally because these are also intentionally, and successfully, terrifying… With a fine instinct for selecting the telling, sensory detail, he captures Mexico City’s sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. . . Sometimes, in a collection, one story stands out, or calls out and speaks to an individual reader’s preferences.   This is a uniformly strong gathering. . .  Mexico  demonstrates his significant talent and promises there is more to anticipate from this fine write r.” - Washington Independent Review of Books ""Congratulations on having penned a collection of stories dealing with crime, the drug cartels, prison, immigration, religion, morality and other compelling issues. They are told in a variety of voices—some violent, others soulful—but all are beautifully crafted and go right to the heart ." - The Huffington Post “Barkan…brings a journalist's eye to his stories and lends each of his primary characters a believable sympathy and often a life-changing moment. Despite the inherent compassion in many of these stories, there's also an underpinning of violence from Mexico's ongoing drug war that gives them a very unsettled air… Masterful stories that peel away at the thin border between everyday life and profane violence in modern-day Mexico .” — Kirkus (starred)   “Barkan turns in a near-perfect debut collection that's addictive, delicious, and confounding in its knife-edge ride through the hard lives of its characters. ” — Library Journal (starred)   "In Josh Barkan’s new story collection,  Mexico , the prize-winning teacher of fiction shares stories that include transformation through love, struggle, and fate—but also almost always because of crime. . . He’s traveled there extensively since 2009 and is writing from experience, not hearsay. . . These are energetic, sympathetic, surprising tales ." - Lithub "Ordinary lives lived in an extraordinarily violent country in the grip of a drugs-based cartel.  Josh Barkan’s  Mexico: Stories  is beautifully written against an ugly background of violence ." - Town and Country “What an unsettling, thrilling experience it is being dropped into the middle of Barkan’s Mexico . It is fraught, surreal, off-kilter, and very funny .