CBR15 PASSPORT COMPLETED! (Stamp #15: Books from other countries)
CBR15 BINGO (South America square: Colombian author, set in Colombia, Translated from Spanish)
I was very excited to pick up this book when looking for a contender for the South American bingo square. My husband and I have fallen down the Narcos rabbit hole on Netflix. So, a novel about Bogatá? Mentions Escobar’s hippos? Yes, please and thank you.
Antonio is a law professor living in the city he was born and raised in: Bogotá. After one of the hippos from Pablo Escobar’s zoo is captured and killed in 2009, it triggers memories of a shortlived friendship that ended in violence that nearly killed him.
After meeting Ricardo Laverde in a billiard’s club, Antonio is intrigued by the mysterious man who was recently released from prison after 20 years. They continue to see one another at the club, share drinks and talk. As the holidays near, Ricardo tells Antonio that after two decades he is going to see his estranged wife who is coming to visit from Florida. When Antonio runs into him again, it is after the holidays and Ricardo asks if he knows where he can play an audio cassette that he urgently needs to listen to. The contents of the tape and the violence that follows changes Antonio’s life forever. Desperate to understand what events led to the tragedy, Antonio follows the path of Laverde’s life though his courtship and marriage with an American peace corps worker, his involvement in drug trafficking and eventually to his daughter, Maya, who is searching for answers of her own.
It’s about a city and its children who grew up in the crosshairs of drug cartel violence and the war on drugs. People murdered in the streets, political assassinations, an airplane bombing, and government corruption shaped the lives of an entire generation.
Coming from Narcos binge watching, it was interesting to see the aftermath of those years particularly through the eyes of the kids that were growing up under its yoke.