From the Bookshelves: Milena, or The Most Beautiful Femur in the World By Jorge Zepeda Patterson
Milena, or The Most Beautiful Femur in the World by Jorge Zepeda Patterson (Translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West) (Published May 2, 2017)
After Milena’s lover and protector Rosendo Franco dies in her arms, she must go on the run from the human-trafficking ring that once kidnapped her from her Croatian village and forced her into prostitution. Soon, three old friends from Mexico City are after her as well—but for different reasons. Newspaper columnist Tomás Arizmendi seeks to retrieve Milena’s little black book that could bring down the media empire he inherited from Franco, while dubious intelligence expert Jaime Lemus wants to use the sensitive information it contains about the crimes of the world’s power elite to further his political puppeteering. The noblest of the trio, politician Amelia Navarro simply wants to carry out her mission to protect women and children from the abuses of men in power.
Told with a sly humor and journalistic detail, Milena, or The Most Beautiful Femur in the World traces in its romp across Europe and the Americas the vast networks of capital, information, and crime that bind together today’s globalized world. In the beautiful and mysterious Milena we encounter an unforgettable woman who reminds us that the survivors of modernity’s ills are not mere statistics but living, breathing, tenacious individuals.
Author: Economist and sociologist Jorge Zepeda Patterson was born in Mazatlán, México, in 1952. He received a masters degree from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales and a doctorate in political science from The Sorbonne. After his journalistic training at El País, he was the founding editor of the newspapers Siglo 21 and Público in Guadalajara, and was later editor-in-chief of El Universal. He has authored numerous books on political analysis, and his weekly column appears in over twenty newspapers in Mexico. He currently edits the news website SinEmbargo.mx.
KJ