The Shape of the Ruins
The Shape of the Ruins was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019 and won the Prémio Literário Casino da Póvoa 2018. It takes the form of personal and formal investigations into two political assassinations - the murders of Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914, the man who inspired García Márquez's General Buendia in One Hundred Years of Solitude, and of the charismatic Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the man who might have been Colombia's J.F.K., gunned down on the brink of success in the presidential elections of 1948. Separated by more than 30 years, the two murders at first appear unconnected, but as the novel progresses Vásquez reveals how between them they contain the seeds of the violence that has bedevilled Colombia ever since.
- Publisher
- MacLehose Press
- ISBN-13
- 9780857056603
- Topics
- Political assassinationColombian history and violenceTruth and conspiracy
Awards
- International Booker PrizeShortlistedMajor(2019)
Other awarded books from Juan Gabriel Vásquez
- The Sound of Things Falling (2013)1 win · 12 score
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