Safe Return Doubtful

Translated from the Spanish (Mexico) by Lisa Dillman – Published 2024

In a brief but important preface Herrera explains how Benito Juárez, who was to become one of Mexico’s greatest political leaders, spent eighteen months in exile in New Orleans in 1853.
Conveniently for Herrera, no history book holds any record of his days in the city, so the short novel becomes speculative.

It was New Orleans that drew me to the book, though I have read Herrera before, and indeed, it was New Orleans that emerged as the highlight.

Though familiar with Mexico’s corruption, he was not prepared to be beaten and robbed by the police on arrival, or to directly experience the slave trade at its height.

Mardi Gras began to be celebrated in 1730 in a Big Easy that was only founded twelve years before, but it was in the mid-1800s until street processions took place. The atmosphere of the carnival is certainly evident here, as Benito dreams of reform, liberation and justice and an end to slavery.

My GoodReads score 4/5