#244 | Coming-of-Age Mixed with Gritty Crime Fiction—Yes, Please—And Why Foreign Novels Can Be a Breath of Fresh Air
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti dives into the gripping world of Nicolas Ferraro's foreign crime novel, "My Favorite Scar." Originally published in 2021 and making its English debut in 2024, the story follows Ambar, a young girl entangled in a life of crime with her father, as she navigates trauma and personal growth. Vigliotti praises Ferraro's lean style and emphasis on the emotional journey of his protagonist, and he shares why foreign fiction can be a refreshing contrast to American fiction.
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TOPICS COVERED IN the EPISODE:
Introduction to the Episode (00:09) - Douglas introduces the podcast and the foreign crime novel "My Favorite Scar" by Nicolas Ferraro.
Author Background (01:13) - Discussion about Nicolas Ferraro, his literary background, and his connection to crime fiction.
Plot Overview (02:16) - Summary of the novel's plot focusing on Amber's life of crime and her father's quest for revenge.
Themes of Coming of Age (03:32) - Exploration of the coming-of-age theme and its significance in Amber's journey.
Questions of Identity and Truth (04:45) - Key questions Amber faces about her past and the cost of discovering the truth.
Thematic Depth of Trauma (06:20) - Discussion on how trauma influences personal growth and the narrative's deeper themes.
Appreciation for Foreign Crime Fiction (07:27) - Douglas shares his love for foreign crime fiction and its refreshing absence of political bias.
Literary Style and Minimalism (08:42) - Insights on the minimalistic style of foreign crime fiction compared to American counterparts.
Comparison to Other Works (10:06) - Comparison of "My Favorite Scar" to "She Ride Shotgun," emphasizing its literary focus.
Conclusion and Call to Action (11:26) - Douglas wraps up the episode, encouraging listeners to read the book and engage with the podcast.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to Books for Men. A podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week I am sharing a piece of fiction. It is a foreign crime novel, clocks in at around 300 pages. It came out originally in 2021 and was translated for English audiences in 2024. It is titled “My Favorite Scar” by Nicolas Ferraro. And before I share any more about the author, the book, and some of my larger takeaways, I did want to quickly remind you that I have a new book out. It is called “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you are a novelist or an aspiring novelist, or maybe just someone trying to tell a story of any kind, whether it's on the page or screen or perhaps in your life, then I think you will find some relevance in this book. And if you're interested in learning more about it, you can visit the web page AristotleforNovelists.com. All right. So now let me turn back to the work at hand.
01:13 - And as always, I first like to start with the author Nicolas Ferraro. He is an Argentine author of three novels, two of which have been translated into English. “Cruz” was the first one and the one that I'm sharing with you today. Both were translated by Mallory Craig-Kuhn. I don't know much about her, and if I'm being totally honest, I don't know much about Nicolas Ferraro either. I mean, other than just some quick things that you could pick up via a Google search, like that. He works at the Argentinian National Library Center for Crime Fiction, and I don't know, he came to noir via video games like Max Payne. And also, he was born the same year as me, 1986. But yes, other than that, I don't know much about him. And I just liked the novel really. So I want to spend the bulk of this episode talking about the book and the story more specifically. So what is it about? In short, it's the story of a young girl named Amber, which is actually the original title of the book.
02:16 - If I'm being totally honest, I think the cover was a lot better of that original book. It's really cool, actually, if you get a chance to go check it out. But anyway, she's a girl born into a life of crime, the only life she's ever known. And now she's 15 and on the run with her father, Victor, as he tries to avoid being killed and simultaneously seek revenge for the murder of his best friend. So, of course, you meet a lot of sleazy people along the way, some with good hearts, others not so much. But really, that's just a reminder of not judging a book by its cover. And this is something that I will talk about a little bit more in just a moment. Behind the obvious crime elements. I believe that it's really a mask for what the story is really about, which is a coming-of-age story, and I personally love coming-of-age stories, whether they are ones of teens or adult coming of age. The whole idea of somebody growing and evolving based on the journey that they go through, is one that just seems very human to me, and one that makes a lot of stories coming of age that don't necessarily, on their face, get billed as a coming-of-age story, although this one definitely does.
03:32 - So, of all the plot questions that get asked, what doesn't Amber know about her past? How much is her father not telling her? Will she survive long enough to find out if life could be any different than the one that she's always known? I think the most important question is, of course, will Amber learn the truth about her life? Or in some sense, it's will she realize the truth about her life and ultimately escape? And most importantly, I think that this is where it really drives home something that is true and honest. What will realizing that truth cost her something that I love is this concept of moving on. But the idea of moving on doesn't come without casualties. And what that cost people is something that I feel like gets underexplored when it should be the thing that's most explored because it's the most resonant with, I think, people's lived experience. And for me, this captures that by the end of the novel. Having said that, I want to turn to some of my larger takeaways now, and I think I want to start with something that I just said moments ago about not judging a book by its cover and just things being more complicated than they look.
04:45 - On face value, I guess. And in some ways, we're all living down the sins of our parents, and we're victims of our own circumstances. And to me, this story is just a hyperbolic version of that very familiar story for everybody. And so the big questions that Amber has to answer in this novel are ones we all must answer in our own lives. Ultimately, some of which end up being comedic stories or comedic lives. And we overcome those obstacles, and others end up being tragic stories or lives, and we succumb to those obstacles. Interestingly, last night, for the first time ever, I watched the movie “Stranger Than Fiction”. And in that movie, Will Ferrell is living inside of a novel, essentially, and he is trying to figure out if he is living a tragic story or a comedic story. And just to reiterate and pull back what I just said moments ago, I think answering a lot of the questions that Amber has to answer in this novel about her own life are ones that we have the decision to investigate in our own lives, maybe not in the same dramatic circumstances, but certainly they have the same dramatic impacts on all of our lives, whether we are conscious of them or unconscious of them, and could be the difference in you achieving the things that you want to achieve, or getting what you want out of life, or living a more meaningful life.
06:20 - And ultimately, for me, this makes the novel a tad more literary because it's asking much bigger questions and drawing metaphors on much bigger subject matter like trauma and worldview and environment and how we grow up and what that means to the rest of our lives. The very title itself. My favorite scar is a nod to the thematic element of this novel in trauma. Right? And how do you overcome that and figure that out in your own life, whether it's big T trauma or little T trauma? I'm not going to get into all of that right now, but I think that this has a really heavy thematic component to it if you allow it to impact you in that way. The second thing that I want to talk a little bit about is just that if you listen to this podcast, you know that I'm a sucker for foreign crime fiction. And actually one of my favorite crime novelists is Fuminori Nakamura, who is a Japanese crime novelist, of course, and I've shared him on this podcast, both in name and also with an episode in the past.
07:27 - I will link it up in the show notes, but the reason why I love foreign crime fiction is twofold, really. One, if I'm being totally honest, is that it's not packed with political and ideological BS of America, which for me just gets tiring as novel after novel hammers it down your throat. We seem very set on getting on certain topics in America and then not getting off of them, because whether they are saleable or not, they feel of the moment. And so things just continue to get published, expressing the same ideas over and over and over again. And when you read something that is foreign, it doesn't have that same level of political or ideological influence, and for me, that is refreshing. And the second thing I love is that I just find them to be much more minimalistic in their nature. So I don't know if that's from the translation or just a matter of style. I think probably more of the latter, but either way, to me, there's just something so inspiring about a writer, and Nicolas Ferraro is one of them who uses control and doesn't overwrite.
08:42 - And this is something, again, that I tend to see a lot in American crime fiction, where it's just hammered home and things aren't given the time and space to just hang there. We have this desire to want things now and immediately, and understand things clearly. And metaphor is like out the window and I don't know, for me, there's just something that is so great about an author who is willing to speak clearly but also briefly and not hammer home these bigger ideas or just sentences or dialogue or anything of that nature, and allow you to connect the dots, even if you may miss it. And so this will bring me to the final thing that I want to share with you. If you are a fan of crime fiction plot-wise, you might recognize that this book is eerily similar to “She Rides Shotgun” by Jordan Harper, a 2017 novel that garnered a lot of acclaim. But as you've already heard me mention, I think one of the things that separates this novel is that it leans a tad more literary, as it focuses on the internal journey of the character a lot more than the crime element of the novel, so that is more emphasized, making you dig further within both the character and yourself.
10:06 - It's also written a lot differently than the novel that I just shared with you previously, so I'll wrap this up by sharing one of my favorite quotes from the book, and it is a short one. As I alluded to and mentioned in this episode quite a bit. The theme of trauma and the metaphor of scar and scarring and scars is one that is sprinkled throughout the narrative and is maybe a bit on the nose for some people, but for me, it really lands. But there's a quote that comes towards the back half of the book that I really just loved, and it's a question that the author asks via the narrator, who is Ambar, your first-person protagonist. And she says, “What can we expect from life when the first thing all of us do is scar the first person who ever loved us?” And like the author, I will let that hang there. I think you should go read this book. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, I want to remind you to please share it with friends or family members or take two seconds and hit the subscribe button on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on, because either of those things goes a long way in helping more people find the show and inspiring more men to read.
11:26 - If you want to weigh in and tell me what you thought about this novel or this episode, then I encourage you to reach out to me, and you can in one of two ways, either on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have, or via my website, DouglasVigliotti.com, as I mentioned at the top of this episode, I have a new book out. It is called “Aristotle for Novelists”. If you want more information on that, all you have to do is visit the website AristotleforNovelists.com. And of course, last but not least, I want to thank you so much for listening. And if you want more information on this podcast specifically, which includes signing up for the monthly newsletter, then all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
