My Favorite Scar

(Hardback)

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Description

A teenage girl and her gangster father embark on a road trip toward revenge in this award-winning coming-of-age Argentinian noir. Fifteen-year-old mbar has never known any parent other than her father, Victor Mondrag n, nor any life other than his-the life of a criminal. On any given Friday night, mbar longs to be at the arcade or a rock concert, but she's more likely to be patching up Victor's latest bullet hole in a dingy motel or creating a new set of fake identities for the both of them. Although she has come to terms with the realities of her life and enjoys aspects of the freedom from societal constraints that lawlessness offers her, she yearns for love and stability-to be like every other teenage girl. When a tattooed mercenary kills Victor's best friend and vows that Victor is next, father and daughter set off on a joyride across Argentina in search of bloody retribution-kill or be killed. But mbar's growing pains hurt worse than her beloved sawed-off shotgun's kickback as she begins to question the structure of her world. How much is her father not telling her Could her life ever be different And will she survive long enough to find out My Favorite Scar is bitterly poetic, as gritty as it is devastating. Buenos Aires-based author Nicolas Ferraro has once again proven himself to be the king of Argentinian noir with this atmospheric, emotional character study that won Spain's prestigious Dashiell Hammett Prize in 2022.

Reviews

Praise for My Favorite Scar

Winner of the Spanish-language Dashiell Hammett Prize

Nicols Ferraro has a lyrical eloquence with words, making My Favorite Scar an exceptional read by a nuanced storyteller who will leave you scarred in all the right ways.
Yasmin Angoe, Anthony Awardnominated author of Her Name Is Knight

In My Favorite Scar, fifteen-year-old mbar's father forces her into a revenge spree that exists at a nexus of noir and coming-of-age, with mbar facing truths about the world and her family that she may never embrace, but knows she has to live with. I truly enjoyed thisit had the real noir feel of a Black Lizard discovery, or one of Massimo Carlotto's best books.
Nathan Ripley, author of Find You in the Dark


Praise for Nicols Ferraro

After seventy years of voracious and omnivorous reading, finding a new writer remains a great pleasure, especially one who honors tradition while speaking clearly, even beautifully, in a voice all his or her own.Nico Ferraro is one of those writers.
James Sallis, author of Drive

Written with a relentless pace, Cruz explores the ferocity of family loyalty and treachery. This is a window into a world most people dont know and no one will forget.
Chris Offutt,author of Shiftys Boys

Ferraros Cruz is like an exquisitely crafted blade, beautiful to the eye but deadly effective.
Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Sleepless City

Nicols Ferraro is the kind of writer who understands how to use blood to tattoo a story on your soul.
Gabino Iglesias, author of Coyote Songs

As cold and shocking as a gun barrel against your neck, Cruz is about the blood you share with family, and the blood you spill because of it, set in the savage underbelly of Argentina. A darkly fun, fast-paced and compulsively readable noir thriller.
Jordan Harper, Edgar Awardwinning author of She Rides Shotgun

Ferraros portrait of a crushingly bleak hellscape where hope and torture are the same word is unremittingly violent, but he writes about that world with unabashed realism, breathtaking power, and a narrative ferocity that never lets up.
Booklist, Starred Review

A vivid, bloody noir set amidst prison and gangland violence in northern Argentina, where two brothers swear themselves to different paths and wrestle with their fathers violent legacy.
CrimeReads

Author Bio

Nicolas Ferraro was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1986. While studying to become a graphic designer at the University of Buenos Aires, Ferraro earned a living by playing poker; now he works as the coordinator at the Center for Crime Fiction at Argentina's National Library. He discovered noir literature thanks to the video game Max Payne, and crime fiction immediately became as central to his existence as hamburgers and the NBA. Ferraro's debut novel, Dogo, was published in Argentina in 2016, and was a finalist for the Extremo Negro Award. Cruz, his first novel to be translated into English, has been published in Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and was a finalist for the Dashiell Hammett Award. His writing is frequently anthologized and he is currently at work on his fourth novel.