A month-long search for the first slot on this year's Guardian first book award longlist comes to an end today. We've had a lot of fun, followed up dozens of recommendations and found a whole new stash of books to review and publishers to look out for. Thanks to all for your excellent suggestions.
Though non-fiction was a little thin on the ground, the fiction has come pouring in – we particularly liked Michael Stewart's King Crow and Neil Butler's The Roost. We've also been introduced to some lively and original new voices in poetry – Penny Goring, author of The Zoom Zoom, being a case in point.
But one book particularly impressed us. It's a fable of Latin America's narco culture as viewed by Tochtli, the young son of a drugs baron who's holed up in a "palace" with his bodyguards, his Xbox 360, a large collection of hats and an even larger collection of state-of-the-art guns.
Down the Rabbit Hole was written in Spanish by its Mexican-born author, Juan Pablo Villalobos, and has been elegantly translated by Rosalind Harvey.
It's the first of four launch titles from new publisher And Other Stories, and the story of its release says much about the energy and resourcefulness of houses outside the mainstream. And Other Stories is backed by the Arts Council but funded largely by subscribers, more than 100 of whom have stumped up to support the first season at the rate of £10 a book.
The judges are still considering the 136 other titles that came via publishers' submissions, with the nine remaining titles on the longlist due to be announced later this month. Meanwhile we'll be catching up with Juan Pablo Villalobos in Edinburgh – it just so happens he's due to appear at the book festival on 15 August – and looking forward to hearing what everybody makes of Tochtli's adventures.
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