With contributions from seven of Mexico's finest journalists, this is reportage at its bravest and most necessary - it has the power to change the world's view of their country, and by the force of its truth, to start to heal the country's many sorrows. Supported the Arts Council Grant's for the Arts Programme and by PEN Promotes Veering between carnival and apocalypse, Mexico has in the last ten years become the epicentre of the international drug trade. The so-called "war on drugs" has been a brutal and chaotic failure (more than 160,000 lives have been lost). The drug cartels and the forces of law and order are often in collusion, corruption is everywhere. Life is cheap and inconvenient people - the poor, the unlucky, the honest or the inquisitive - can be "disappeared" leaving not a trace behind (in September 2015, more than 26,798 were officially registered as "not located"). Yet people in all walks of life have refused to give up. Diego Enrique Osorno and Juan Villoro tell stories of teenage prostitution and Mexico's street children. Anabel Hernandez and Emiliano Ruiz Parra give chilling accounts of the "disappearance" of forty-three students and the murder of a self-educated land lawyer. Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez and Marcela Turati dissect the impact of the violence on the victims and those left behind, while Lydia Cacho contributes a journal of what it is like to live every day of your life under threat of death. Reading these accounts we begin to understand the true nature of the meltdown of democracy, obscured by lurid headlines, and the sheer physical and intellectual courage needed to oppose it.

The product of five years' investigative reporting, the subject of intense national controversy,
and the source of death threats that forced the National Human Rights Commission to assign
two full-time bodyguards to its author, Anabel Hernandez, "Narcoland" has been a publishing
and political sensation in Mexico.
The definitive history of the drug cartels, "Narcoland" takes readers to the front lines of the
"war on drugs," which has so far cost more than 60,000 lives in just six years. Hernandez explains
in riveting detail how Mexico became a base for the mega-cartels of Latin America and one of the
most violent places on the planet. At every turn, Hernandez names names--not just the narcos,
but also the politicians, functionaries, judges and entrepreneurs who have collaborated with them.
In doing so, she reveals the mind-boggling depth of corruption in Mexico's government
and business elite.
Hernandez became a journalist after her father was kidnapped and killed and the police refused
to investigate without a bribe. She gained national prominence in 2001 with her exposure
of excess and misconduct at the presidential palace, and previous books have focused on
criminality at the summit of power, under presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon.
In awarding Hernandez the 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom, the World Association of Newspapers
and News Publishers noted, "Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries in the
world for journalists, with violence and impunity remaining major challenges in terms of press
freedom. In making this award, we recognize the strong stance Ms. Hernandez has taken, at great
personal risk, against drug cartels."

"From the Hardcover edition."