The Shape of the Ruins

Author(s): Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Fiction

Description: The Shape of the Ruins by the Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vasquez, whose recent novel, the best-selling Sound of Things Falling won Spain's Alfaguara Prize, Italy's Von Rezzori Prize and the 2014 Dublin IMPAC literary Award, was published to acclaim in Colombia last year and has just appeared in Spain. It takes the form of personal and formal investigations into two political assassinations - the murders of Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914, the man who inspired Garcia Marquez's General Buendia in One Hundred Years of Solitude, and of the charismatic Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, the man who might have been Colombia's J.F.K., gunned down on the brink of success in the presidential elections of 1948. Separated by more than 30 years, the two murders at first appear unconnected, but as the novel progresses Vasquez reveals how between them they contain the seeds of the violence that has bedevilled Colombia ever since. The Shape of the Ruins is Vasquez's most ambitious, challenging and rewarding novel to date.


Shortlisted Man Booker International 2019


Review: Absolutely hypnotic, a display of tense, agile, intelligent narrative, it takes conspiracy to a whole other level * El Cultural * With utmost skill, Vasquez has us accompany him in his detective work, proposing a reflection on ghosts from the past and the inheritance of blame, doubt and fear * El Pais * Juan Gabriel Vasquez's latest and most ambitious novel.... A dazzlingly choreographed network of echoes and mirrorings * Times Literary Supplement * Juan Gabriel Vasquez's The Shape of the Ruins is a highly sophisticated, fast-moving political thriller set in Colombia and an excellent read -- Alan Furst Like Don DeLillo's JFK-themed Libra, the novel is an intoxicating blend of fact and fiction -- Malcolm Forbes * Glasgow Herald * A masterful writer . . . Juan Gabriel Vasquez has many gifts--intelligence, wit, energy, a deep vein of feeling--but he uses them so naturally that soon enough one forgets one's amazement at his talents, and then the strange, beautiful sorcery of his tale takes hold -- Nicole Krauss For anyone who has read the entire works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and is in search of a new Colombian novelist, then Juan Gabriel Vasquez . . . is a thrilling new discovery. -- Colm Toibin * Guardian. * One of the most original new writers of Latin American Literature. -- Mario Vargas Llosa


 


 


Author Biography: Juan Gabriel Vasquez was born in Bogota in 1973. His previous books include the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner and international bestseller The Sound of Things Falling, as well as The Informers, The Secret History of Costaguana and Reputations, which was awarded the Royal Spanish Academy Prize. He has translated works by Joseph Conrad, John Dos Passos and Victor Hugo, amongst others. His books have been translated in twenty-eight languages and forty countries. In 2016 he was made Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et de Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. After sixteen years in France, Belgium and Spain, he now lives in Bogota.


 

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Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780857056597
  • : Quercus
  • : 0.3
  • : February 2018
  • : ---length:- '21'width:- '13.8'units:- Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Juan Gabriel Vasquez
  • : Paperback
  • : 512