Purchase
An elderly retired teacher is caught up in drug wars which slowly destroy his small town.
New Directions
September 2009
On Sale: September 15, 2009
224 pages
ISBN: 0811218643
EAN: 9780811218641
Paperback
Add to Wish List
Fiction Family Life
Ismail, the profesor, is a retired teacher in a small Colombian town where he passes the days pretending to pick oranges while spying on his neighbor Geraldina as she lies naked in the shade of a ceiba tree on a red floral quilt. The garden burns with sunlight; the macaws laugh sweetly. Otilia, Ismail's wife, is ashamed of his peeping and suggests that he pay a visit to Father Albornoz. Instead, Ismail wanders the town visiting old friends, plagued by a tangle of secret memories: Where have I existed these years? I answer myself: up on the wall, peering over. When the armies slowly arrive, the profesor's reveries are gradually taken over by a living hell. His wife disappears and he must find her. We learn that not only gentle, grassy hillsides surround San José but landmines and coca fields. The reader is soon engulfed by the violence of Rosero's narrative that is touched not only with a deep sadness, but an extraordinary tenderness.
 Media BuzzTalk of the Nation - December 4, 2009
| 
© 2003-2026