When Gabriel Santoro publishes his first book, a biography of a Jewish family friend who fled Germany for Colombia shortly before World War Two, it never occurs to him that his father will write a devastating review in a national newspaper. Why does he attack him so viciously? Do the pages of his book unwittingly hide some dangerous secret? As Gabriel sets out to discover what lies behind his father's anger, he finds himself undertaking an examination of the guilt and complicity at the heart of Colombian society, as one treacherous act perpetrated in those dark days returns with a vengeance half a century later.
The Informers: Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
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Review
'An enticing novel of betrayal, secrecy and a long quest for redemption'
-- Jewish News
'From the opening paragraph of The Informers, I felt myself under the spell of a masterful writer'
-- Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love
'Juan Gabriel Vásquez is one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature. His first novel, 'The Informers' ... is testimony to the richness of his imagination as well as the subtlety and elegance of his prose.' -- Mario Vargas Llosa
'Subtle, assured, artfully told and painted in delicate Le Carre-style shades of moral ambiguity, The Informers shows how mightily the novel in Columbia is thriving after the Marquez era.' -- Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
-- Jewish News
'From the opening paragraph of The Informers, I felt myself under the spell of a masterful writer'
-- Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love
'Juan Gabriel Vásquez is one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature. His first novel, 'The Informers' ... is testimony to the richness of his imagination as well as the subtlety and elegance of his prose.' -- Mario Vargas Llosa
'Subtle, assured, artfully told and painted in delicate Le Carre-style shades of moral ambiguity, The Informers shows how mightily the novel in Columbia is thriving after the Marquez era.' -- Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
Review
'From the opening paragraph of The Informers, I felt myself under the spell of a masterful writer'
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Sofia
Format:Paperback
'The Informers' is a novel that deals with the echoes of the Second World War, namely: how do you live with the choices you made in wartime? However, though it concerns Columbia's murky wartime policies and people who both exploited them or fell victim to them, Vasquez's novel is far from just a book about the war.
Focused on the life of Gabriel Santoro, an ailing legal academic, 'The Informers' is narrated by his son (who has the same name) as he slowly unravels everything he thought he knew about his father. The novel is packed with ideas and theories. It obviously looks at the war and how Columbia responded to international pressure, but it also looks at how Columbians dealt with European immigration and how those immigrants (German Nazis and German Jews) dealt with each other. There is much here about fathers and sons, truth and deception, alienation and identity, assimilation and its value all of which is deftly woven into a gripping book.
Vasquez makes this an intensely readable book, with enough suspense to keep you hooked but above all with a real love of language. Both Gabriel Santoros revel in the use of language and much is said about native languages and the comfort that can be found in speaking them. Vasquez displays a real knowledge of the complexities of conversation (the tensions of things left unsaid, the awkwardness of talking face-to-face, the discomfort of hearing too much from a speaker) and cleverly juxtaposes this with the apparent certainties of the written word as Gabriel Santoro jr attempts to write his book as honestly as he can.
This is an unusual war story but a fascinating one with much that lingers beyond the final page. Definitely worth a read.
Focused on the life of Gabriel Santoro, an ailing legal academic, 'The Informers' is narrated by his son (who has the same name) as he slowly unravels everything he thought he knew about his father. The novel is packed with ideas and theories. It obviously looks at the war and how Columbia responded to international pressure, but it also looks at how Columbians dealt with European immigration and how those immigrants (German Nazis and German Jews) dealt with each other. There is much here about fathers and sons, truth and deception, alienation and identity, assimilation and its value all of which is deftly woven into a gripping book.
Vasquez makes this an intensely readable book, with enough suspense to keep you hooked but above all with a real love of language. Both Gabriel Santoros revel in the use of language and much is said about native languages and the comfort that can be found in speaking them. Vasquez displays a real knowledge of the complexities of conversation (the tensions of things left unsaid, the awkwardness of talking face-to-face, the discomfort of hearing too much from a speaker) and cleverly juxtaposes this with the apparent certainties of the written word as Gabriel Santoro jr attempts to write his book as honestly as he can.
This is an unusual war story but a fascinating one with much that lingers beyond the final page. Definitely worth a read.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By P. J. Dunn
Format:Paperback
I only really picked up this book because I am a bit of a Joseph Conrad fan. I had acquired Juan Gabriel Vasquez's `The Secret History of Costaguanato' to see what he did with Conrad as a character even though I am normally wary of books that use dead authors as characters. On a whim I thought I ought to read his earlier book `The Informers' first.
That worked out rather well as decision as this was such a good read that I am looking forward even more to `The Secret History of Costaguanato' - so much that my reflex dislike for the use of real authors as fictional characters has dissipated - well at least in the case of Juan Gabriel Vasquez's writing for now....
That worked out rather well as decision as this was such a good read that I am looking forward even more to `The Secret History of Costaguanato' - so much that my reflex dislike for the use of real authors as fictional characters has dissipated - well at least in the case of Juan Gabriel Vasquez's writing for now....
3 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are some flaws and short cuts in this novel, but there is no doubting the author's talent and capacity to keep you reading. Watch out for more good things from him.
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