Sebastian Shakespeare
Columbian Collaborators
The Informers
By Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Translated by Anne Mclean)
Bloomsbury 352pp £16.99
Juan Gabriel Vásquez was named last year as one of the Bogotá 39, the most important thirty-nine Latin American writers under the age of thirty-nine. It is a measure of how far Latin American literature has changed in recent years that there is only one overtly magical-realist image in his book, which is when the pigeons in Plaza de Bolivar in Bogotá all start dying and falling out of the sky at once. Even this freakish phenomenon has an entirely rational explanation: it transpires that the corn used to feed the birds had been poisoned ‘without anyone knowing why or without those responsible ever being found, or even pursued’.
Human behaviour is as enigmatic as a cloudburst of pigeons, and such is the theme of this beguiling novel. Why do lovers, husbands, wives, friends betray each other? What possesses us to turn on our kith and kin?
The title refers to the introduction of blacklists of German immigrants in Colombia during the Second World War. Often entirely innocent people were denounced for harbouring Nazi sympathies, and nobody knew why or by whom they had been denounced. The atmosphere was increasingly noxious; treachery was commonplace. It is a
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Are iPhones ruining children's lives? A prominent American psychologist thinks so.
@tiffanyjenkins is not so sure:
Tiffany Jenkins - The Smartphone Pandemic
Tiffany Jenkins: The Smartphone Pandemic - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an...
literaryreview.co.uk
India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
Owen Bennett-Jones - New Delhi Confidential
Owen Bennett-Jones: New Delhi Confidential - The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India by Alpa Shah
literaryreview.co.uk
Where is the world's newest narcostate and why is it thriving?
@AdamBrookesWord investigates Asia's meth mecca.
Adam Brookes - Meth Comes to Myanmar
Adam Brookes: Meth Comes to Myanmar - Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Outwitted the CIA by Patrick Winn
literaryreview.co.uk