Review
Delirium, Restrepo's sixth novel to be published in English
(the translation is by Natasha Wimmer who also translated
The Savage Detectives), has already
won the 2004 Premio Alfaguara in Spain, the 2006 Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy,
and was short listed for the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (best
translated fiction). The story is told from various points of view; we
hear from Aguila, Agustina's mild-mannered "husband", who returns home to find
his wife deranged; we also hear from the gangster Midas, Agustina's former
lover; we travel back two generations to see through the eyes of Agustina's
German grandfather, Nicolás; and, of course, we hear Agustina's story, sometimes
told in the first
person, sometimes in the third, as she drifts between the past and present.
The setting is Bogota, capital of...
Beyond the Book
A Short History of Colombia
About twice the size of Texas with a population of 44 million, Colombia is
located just south of Panama (map).
ith a per capita GDP of $8,400, 49% of the population live below the poverty
line. .
From 1510 the area that is now Colombia was part of the Spanish empire until a
nine year uprising led by Simon Bolivar resulted in the formation of Gran
Colombia in 1819, encompassing what is now Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. In 1830, Venezuela and Ecuador became separate nations, leaving the
remaining territory as the republic of New Granada.
In 1886 Colombia became a single republic following the anti-federalist
revolution of 1885. In 1899 civil war broke out killing as many as...
