Read Around South America Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in South America.
Best books from South America (544)
341.
342.
Oblivion : A Memoir by Héctor Abad EN
Country: South America / 
Colombia
Colombia
Description:
Now the basis for the acclaimed film Memories of My Father, directed by Fernando Trueba. "An irreplaceable testimony of the struggle for democracy and tolerance in Latin America." —El País Héctor Abad's Oblivion is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written memorial to the author's father, Héctor Abad Gómez, whose criticism of the Colombian regime led to his murder by paramilitaries in 1987. Twenty years in the writing, it paints an unforgettable picture of a man who followed his conscience and paid for it with his life during one of the darkest periods in Latin America's recent history.
343.
María by Jorge Isaacs ES
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
Jorge Isaacs' María is perhaps the best known, most frequently read 19th century Spanish American novel, but at the same time, the most often misunderstood by modern readers and critics alike. The novel has been labeled by some critics as a real tear-jerker that seeks to revive, and to share with the reader, the loss of a first love. The story is recounted by Efraín, a first-person narrator, who tells it in retrospection, reconstructing the events and feelings of the moment, but in many instances reacting to that past in the emotional framework of the present. The abundant weeping in the tale ... continue
344.
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
Narrada detalladamente y con emoción, la historia principal se fragmenta en otras que se anudan a través de unos personajes llenos de matices que comparten el mismo telón de fondo: Pablo Escobar manejando los hilos y las vidas de todos, como si fuesen sus marionetas, haciéndoles bailar y saltar al son que él quiere tocar; y en el momento que lo quiere tocar. Ganadora del VII Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2004
345.
La vorágine by José Eustasio Rivera ES
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
The novel is set in at least three different bioregions of Colombia during the rubber boom. This novel narrates the adventures of Arturo Cova, a hot-headed proud chauvinist and his lover Alicia, as they elope from Bogotá, through the eastern plains and later, escaping from criminal misgivings, through the amazon rainforest of Colombia. In this way Rivera is able to describe the magic of these regions, with their rich biodiversity, and the lifestyle of the inhabitants. However, one of the main objectives of the novel is to reveal the appalling conditions that workers in the rubber factories exp... continue
346.
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
Bogota, années 1980. María, Andrés et Ernesto sont trois âmes tourmentées qui errent dans les rues de la ville. Jusqu'au jour où ils croisent le chemin de Campo Elías, vétéran du Vietnam hanté par ses souvenirs de guerre et obsédé par le thème du double maléfique. Roman inspiré par un fait divers. Bogota, années 1980. Lasse de vivre d'expédients, María décide de prendre sa revanche sur la société en dépouillant les clients des clubs chics de la ville. Artiste à succès, Andrés découvre que ses portraits prédisent les maladies dont ses modèles vont souffrir. Prêtre dans un quartier populaire, Er... continue
347.
Rosario Tijeras by Jorge Franco Ramos ES
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
"Since they shot her at point-blank range while she was being kissed, she confused the pain of love with that of death." Rosario Tijeras is the violent, violated character at the center of Jorge Franco's study of contrasts, set in self-destructing 1980s Medellín. Her very name-evoking the rosary, and scissors-bespeaks her conflict as a woman who becomes a contract killer to insulate herself from the random violence of the streets. Then she is shot, gravely wounded, and the circle of contradiction is closed. From the corridors of the hospital where Rosario is fighting for her life, Antonio, the... continue
348.
Las estrellas son negras by Arnoldo Palacios ES
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
Irra o Israel, el protagonista de este clásico recobrado, publicado por primera vez en la Colombia del año 49, después del Bogotazo, sueña con matar al intendente de una Quibdó que es la de los años cuarenta. Una ciudad cosmopolita y pequeña; una ciudad con casaquintas coloniales y miseria. Y un río: el río que ve Irra desde su casa en la orilla de la desembocadura del Quito, tal como lo nombra en la novela y que es el mismo Atrato. Esta es una novela ambiciosa desde su concepción: en día y medio un hombre da cuenta de un mundo desconocido hasta hoy por propios extraños. Una ciudad construida ... continue
349.
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez EN
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
A New York Times Notable Book On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit–he has purchased hundreds of women–he asks a madam for her assistance. The fourteen-year-old girl who is procured for him is enchanting, but exhausted as she is from caring for siblings and her job sewing buttons, she can do little but sleep. Yet with this sleeping beauty at his side, it is he who awakens to a romance he has never known. Tender, knowing, and slyly comic, Memories of My Melancholy Whores is an exquisite addition to the master’... continue
350.
Magical Realism for Non-Believers : A Memoir of Finding Family by Anika Fajardo EN
Country: South America / Colombia
Colombia
Description:
"Magical Realism for Non-Believers is set against the backdrops of Colombia and the United States (particularly Minneapolis) of the mid-1990s, and flashes back to the unsettled freedoms of the 1970s. It's the story of a half-Colombian, half-Minnesotan exploring her past and discovering her future, taking readers on a journey from the US to Fajardo's birthplace in Colombia and the discovery of a half-brother she never knew existed, to the creation of her own family in Minneapolis"--