Una novela llena de suspense y la perfecta radiografía de una generación atrapada en el miedo.

Novela ganadora del English Pen Award 2012, del Premio Gregor von Rezzori-Città di Firenze 2013 y del IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award 2014.

Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2011.

Tan pronto conoce a Ricardo Laverde, el joven Antonio Yammara comprende que en el pasado de su nuevo amigo hay un secreto, o quizá varios. Su atracción por la misteriosa vida de Laverde, nacida al hilo de sus encuentros en un billar, se transforma en verdadera obsesión el día en que éste es asesinado.

Convencido de que resolver el enigma le señalará un camino en su encrucijada vital, Yammara emprende una investigación que se remonta a los primeros años setenta, cuando una generación de jóvenes idealistas fue testigo del nacimiento de un negocio que acabaría por llevar a Colombia - y al mundo - al borde del abismo. Años después, la exótica fuga de un hipopótamo, último vestigio del imposible zoológico con el que Pablo Escobar exhibía su poder, es la chispa que lleva a Yammara a contar su historia y la de Ricardo Laverde, tratando de averiguar cómo el negocio del narcotráfico marcó la vida privada de quienes nacieron con él.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

An intimate portrayal of the drug wars in Colombia, from international fiction star Juan Gabriel Vasquez.

Juan Gabriel Vásquez has been hailed not only as one of South America’s greatest literary stars, but also as one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. In this New York Times-bestselling, award-winning, gorgeously wrought novel, Vásquez confronts the history of his home country, Colombia.In the city of Bogotá, Antonio Yammara reads an article about a hippo that had escaped from a derelict zoo once owned by legendary Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The article transports Antonio back to when the war between Escobar’s Medellín cartel and government forces played out violently in Colombia’s streets and in the skies above. Back then, Antonio witnessed a friend’s murder, an event that haunts him still. As he investigates, he discovers the many ways in which his own life and his friend’s family have been shaped by his country’s recent violent past. His journey leads him all the way back to the 1960s and a world on the brink of change: a time before narco-trafficking trapped a whole generation in a living nightmare.

Vásquez is “one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature,” according to Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, and The Sound of Things Falling is his most personal, most contemporary novel to date, a masterpiece that takes his writing—and his literary star—even higher.