My Favorite Scar

(Paperback)

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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. 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. 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. 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. 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 It's kill or be killed in this gritty, devastating coming-of-age thriller from the king of Argentine neo-noir.

Reviews

Praise for My Favorite Scar

Winner of the Spanish-language Dashiell Hammett Prize
CrimeReads Most Anticipated Crime Fiction of 2024

Visceral, violent crime noir . . . My Favorite Scar never shies away from blood, literal or figurative . . . While the high-octane adventure will certainly entice action fans, its mbars conflicted coming-of-age tale that pierces deepest.
ELLE

Knocked my socks off . . . This is a wonderful coming-of-age story, ably written and delicately translated by Mallory Craig-Kuhn, of two lovable characters and a supporting cast of colorful deplorables.
The Durango Telegraph

Its her [mbar's] complex journey through her fathers past sins that gives the story its heart. The rest is a dark, compelling vision of violence and retribution.
CrimeReads

Paper Moon meets Kill Bill in this unnerving story about how a fathers violent criminal career affects his fifteen-year-old daughter.
Booklist

The book feels like Richard Starks Parker had a bring your daughter to work day and stands apart from other thrillers as Ferraro gives narrative space to mbars own self-discovery . . . This literary thriller with The Last of Us dynamics will please readers who like thrills with substance.
Library Journal

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

[Ferraro's]writing is clear, compelling and explosive, yet, at the same time pensively poetic.
BookTrib

My Favorite Scar is a success, made memorable by its stylish prose, its foreign location, but mostly by its teenage narrator . . . The periods when the novel slows to a more contemplative pace are amongst the best of the book. We are treated to her most personal thoughts, with a level of intimacy not often found within crime fiction.
Crime Fiction Lover

This tale is a nice mix of crime noir and coming of age as a teenage girl and her father are on the run seeking revenge . . . Vctor and mbar quickly become indelible characters as our wayward protagonists.
Bookreporter.com

My Favorite Scar is a nihilistic road novel of unrelenting bleakness that takes readers on a hair-raising tour of Argentinas criminal underworld . . . [Ferraros] deftly created suspense builds with every mile driven, every fake ID used, every drop of blood spilled. My Favorite Scar is a pitch-black coming-of-age tale that reverberates with oft-poetically expressed pain and sadnessand maybe, just maybe, a hint of hope.
BookPage

Abrutal father-daughter road trip revenge saga . . . Ferraro ends on a satisfying note. For readers with strong stomachs, this offers high-octane suspense.
Publishers Weekly

Ferraro smoothly combines elements of noir, road novel, and coming-of-age story . . . The climactic violence is both inevitable and devastating. A brisk, gritty crime yarn.
Kirkus Reviews

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. Cruz, his first novel to be translated into English, has been published in Argentina, Mexico, and Spain, and was a finalist for the Dashiell Hammett Award. My Favorite Scar has also been published in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. Ferraro's work has been translated into French, Portuguese, and Italian.