The Hand That Feeds You by Mercedes Rosende
The attempted robbery of the armoured car in the back streets of Montevideo is a miserable failure. A lucky break for the intrepid Ursula Lopez who manages to snatch all the loot, more hindered than helped by her faint-hearted and reluctant companion Diego. Only now, the wannabe robbers are hot on her heels. As is the police. And Ursula's sister. But Ursula turns out to be enormously talented when it comes to criminal undertakings, and given the hilarious ineptitude of those in pursuit, she might just pull it off.
She is an irresistible heroine. A murderess with a sense of humour, a lovable criminal with an edge and she is practically invisible to the men who dominate the deeply macho society of Uruguay.
About the author
Mercedes Rosende was born in 1958 in Montevideo, Uruguay. She is a lawyer and a journalist when not writing fiction. She has won many prizes for her novels and short stories. In 2005 she won the Premio Municipal de Narrativa für Demasiados Blues, in 2008 the National Literature Prize for La Muerte Tendrá tus Ojos and in 2019 the LiBeraturpreis in Germany for Crocodile Tears.
About the translator
Tim Gutteridge is a Scottish literary translator based in Edinburgh. He works from Spanish and Catalan into English. His translation of Potosí (Ander Izagirre) won a PEN Translates Award and was published by Zed Books as The Mountain that Eats Men.
Review
‘The Hand That Feeds You’ is a witty, tongue-in-cheek take on a heist novel with a twist! But it has depth, the characters are brilliant, there are plenty of wtf moments and you left wanting more. This is the second in the series that deals with the residents of Montevideo but it can be read as a standalone. It was how I came to the book and I didn't think I was missing out on anything. To be fair I didn't even realise there had been a previous book until I was logging this one on Goodreads. I will be picking up ‘Crocodile Tears’ though as I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
The heist of an armoured van in the streets of Montevideo goes spectacularly wrong! It's a massacre and one that Ursula Lopez is able to take advantage of. She grabs all the loot off the thieves and makes a run for it with her friend Diego. She has the police, the gang and her sister after she and the pressure mounts up. But it turns out she makes a good criminal and doesn't want to lose this money for anything and given that everyone else in the fray seems to be useless she might even get away with it!
I have to admit that I kind of liked Ursula. Sure she is a loner, with daddy and body issues but she is clever, funny and loyal to her sister. Even if her sister doubts her activities in the past. I really hope that the series continues as I'm intrigued to where life is going to take her next and if she really does get away with everything! But Ursula is only one of four women in this book that events revolve around - there is her sister, a PI called Jack and a police captain called Leo! Each one fascinating in their own right but I do want to know more about Jack and Leo. They seemed strong women who didn't mind bending the boundaries to get what they wanted.
This is funny novel which I found myself laughing at a few times. Now, it takes something really good to make me laugh out loud and I did with this book! It was also a brilliant translation by Tim as you could feel Mercedes's voice shine brightly. I love that more and more crime is getting translated from South America and this is my first from Uruguay and hopefully it won't be the last.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
