The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

From a global literary star comes a prize-winning tour de force--an intimate portrayal of the drug wars in Colombia.

Juan Gabriel Vasquez 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 gorgeously wrought, award-winning novel, Vasquez confronts the history of his home country, Colombia.

In the city of Bogota, 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 Medellin 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.

Vasquez 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 will take his literary star--even higher.

Juan Gabriel Vsquez's past works include The Sound of Things Falling, a national bestseller and winner of the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize, as well as the award-winning The Informers, The Hidden History of Costaguana, and the story collection Lovers on All Saints' Day. Vsquez's works have been translated into twenty-eight languages around the world. He presently resides in Bogot after spending sixteen years in France, Belgium, and Spain. Anne McLean translates novels, short tales, memoirs, and other works from Latin America and Spain. She has twice won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Premio Valle Incln, as well as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her work The Sound of Things Falling, which she co-wrote with Juan Gabriel Vsquez. She currently resides in Toronto.