Descripción
Winner of the English Pen Award 2012, the Gregor von Rezzori-Città di Firenze Award 2013, and the IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award 2014.
Alfaguara Novel Prize 2011.
As soon as he meets Ricardo Laverde, young Antonio Yammara understands that there is a secret, or perhaps several, in his new friend's past. His attraction to Laverde's mysterious life, born from their encounters at a pool hall, turns into a true obsession the day Laverde is murdered. Convinced that solving the enigma will show him a path in his vital crossroads, Yammara embarks on an investigation that goes back to the early seventies, when a generation of idealistic young people witnessed the birth of a business that would eventually lead Colombia - and the world - to the brink of the abyss. Years later, the exotic escape of a hippopotamus, the last vestige of the impossible zoo with which Pablo Escobar displayed his power, is the spark that leads Yammara to tell his story and that of Ricardo Laverde, trying to find out how the drug trafficking business marked the private lives of those who were born with it. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION An intimate portrayal of the drug wars in Colombia, from international fiction star Juan Gabriel Vasquez. Juan Gabriel Vásquez has been hailed not only as one of South America's greatest literary stars, but also as one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. In this New York Times-bestselling, award-winning, gorgeously wrought novel, Vásquez confronts the history of his home country, Colombia.In the city of Bogotá, Antonio Yammara reads an article about a hippo that had escaped from a derelict zoo once owned by legendary Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The article transports Antonio back to when the war between Escobar's Medellín cartel and government forces played out violently in Colombia's streets and in the skies above. Back then, Antonio witnessed a friend's murder, an event that haunts him still. As he investigates, he discovers the many ways in which his own life and his friend's family have been shaped by his country's recent violent past. His journey leads him all the way back to the 1960s and a world on the brink of change: a time before narco-trafficking trapped a whole generation in a living nightmare. Vásquez is "one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature," according to Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, and The Sound of Things Falling is his most personal, most contemporary novel to date, a masterpiece that takes his writing--and his literary star--even higher.
Author: Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Publisher: Debolsillo
Published: 12/29/2015
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.40h x 4.90w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9786073137515
ISBN10: 6073137516
Language: Spanish
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Historical | General
- Fiction | Literary
- Fiction | Thrillers | Crime
About the Author
Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Bogotá, 1973) es autor de la colección de relatos Los amantes de Todos los Santos y de las novelas Los informantes, Historia secreta de Costaguana, El ruido de las cosas al caer, Las reputaciones y La forma de las ruinas. Ha publicado también una recopilación de ensayos literarios, El arte de la distorsión, y una breve biografía de Joseph Conrad, El hombre de ninguna parte. Sus libros se publican actualmente en veintiocho lenguas y han merecido, entre otros, el Premio Alfaguara, el English Pen Award, el Premio Gregor von Rezzori-Città di Firenze, el IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award, el Premio Real Academia Española, el Premio Casa de Amèrica Latina de Lisboa y el Premio Roger Caillois por el conjunto de su obra, otorgado anteriormente a escritores como Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes y Ricardo Piglia. Ha traducido obras de Joseph Conrad y Victor Hugo, entre otros, y en 2016 fue nombrado Caballero de la Orden de las Artes y las Letras de la República francesa.