Book Summary and Reviews of The Immortal Boy by Francisco Montaña Ibáñez

The Immortal Boy by Francisco Montaña Ibáñez

The Immortal Boy

by Francisco Montaña Ibáñez

  • Critics' Consensus (10):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2021, 176 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Two intertwining stories of Bogotá.

One, a family of five children, left to live on their own.

The other, a girl in an orphanage who will do anything to befriend the mysterious Immortal Boy.

How they weave together will never leave you.

Presented in English and Spanish.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"[S]uspenseful, unexpected, and tragic...Fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs may appreciate the eerie tone. This work could serve as a springboard for discussions about poverty and the difficult choices one must make in desperate situations...Intense, surreal, and mysterious." - Kirkus Reviews

"[P]oignant...The novel, told in both first and third person, presents Montaña Ibáñez's original Spanish text alongside Bowles's adept English translation. While depictions of extreme poverty and implied gun violence may prove triggering for some readers, the stark beauty of Montaña Ibáñez's narrative will give those who pick it up much to contemplate." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Immortal Boy was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

Francisco Montaña Ibáñez is an award-winning author for children and a professor at the National University of Colombia (IIE). The Immortal Boy is his first book translated into English.

David Bowles is a Mexican American author and translator from South Texas. Among his multiple award-winning books are Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico, and They Call Me Güero; he is also the translator of The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americas. In 2017, David was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Immortal Boy, try these:

  • The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny jacket

    The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

    by Kiran Desai

    Published 2026

    About this book

    A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years—an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss.

  • The Book That Wouldn't Burn jacket

    The Book That Wouldn't Burn

    by Mark Lawrence

    Published 2024

    About this book

    Two strangers find themselves connected by a vast and mysterious library containing many wonders and still more secrets, in this powerfully moving first book in a new series from the international bestselling author of Red Sister and Prince of Thorns.

  • Secrets of Happiness jacket

    Secrets of Happiness

    by Joan Silber

    Published 2022

    About this book

    When a man discovers his father in New York has long had another, secret, family - a wife and two kids - the interlocking fates of both families lead to surprise loyalties, love triangles, and a reservoir of inner strength.

We have 10 read-alikes for The Immortal Boy, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Literary Fiction

Browse all Literary Fiction books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
Who Said...

The less we know, the longer our explanations.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.