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BOOKS I READ: The Shape of the Ruins (2015) by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (trans. Anne McLean, 2018). The history and conspiracies surrounding the murders of General Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914 and Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948, assassinations of importance to Colombian politics that barely register elsewhere, are exhumed to give shape to the monsters that live among us in the quest for power.
Vásquez hones in on the tale of Carlos Carballo, an eccentric whose father, a Gaitanista, is caught up in turmoil and violence between the Liberal and Conservative parties. These two tribes, along with the Catholic Church’s influence and meddling, have defined the violent political arena of the country for more than a century.
Vásquez inserts himself in the novel, blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, so much so that her inserts a warning at the end, “Reader who wish to find coincidences with real life in this book do so at their own risk.”
NB: using Medium’s shortform posts to chain recent reads. Go to previous book:
