Reviews

If I could give it 3.5 stars I would've (#appissues)liked it but it is one of those books that you can sort of feel like something was lost in the translation. It's a beautiful story that kept me up at night wanting to read more and kept me on the edge as the mystery is unraveled however the beginning was kind of a slow paced with a lot of beautifully written descriptions that sort of don't add up or progress the plot but I felt that after 70 pages or so things really kick in and the novel really finds it's footing. It's a fascinating story and left me very eager and fascinated to research more about just what was happening in Latin America in world war 2. That part and Sara's recounting of those times were easily the best part of the book. If this makes any sense at all, I liked it a lot because the story was very fascinating that being said I think it could have been told a bit more effectively.

gengray47's review against another edition

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3.0

I liked the writing but giving it three stars because sometimes the plot really bored me. Maybe I didn't get something but sadly it just wasn't really my thing.

rhays40's review against another edition

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5.0

Layered mystery, nuanced characters, visual language. Plowed through it.

lemoneater's review against another edition

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2.0

Much like the narrator of this story, I found this book somewhat tedious and unengaging. Yet, I feel reading it was a worthwhile education in a part of history that I was not familiar with. Still, I'd rather re-read 100 Years of Solitude accompanied by lengthy footnotes on Colombian history and culture - can anyone tell me if such an edition exists?

juanasanchez's review

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4.0

3.7 ⭐️

venneh's review against another edition

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4.0

I picked this up after having read The Sound of Things Falling and Reputations because I wanted a longer read and because I was interested in what I saw from the summary. While the relationship between the father and the son is definitely central to this book, what happened to a family friend, who is a German immigrant to Colombia who came over in the 30s, how her and her father’s history intertwine, and how people view his father (and to some degree, the author and his writings) for it is where the story really unfolds. There’s also the divide of private memory versus public/cultural memory, and how that can play into the writing and consumption of a book. Seeing how the personal narratives end up tying into the truth and the moral ambiguity that unfolds is great, and probably one of the rare cases of the hype on the back of the book living up to the book itself (The Independent making the comparison of “a mature John LeCarre wander[ing] into the narrative labyrinths of Borges”). I highly recommend picking this up, and also doing a bit of diving into Colombia during WWII.

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