Ganador del Premio Bienal de Novela Vargas Llosa 2021

Penso que los recuerdos eran invisibles como la luz, y asi como el humo hacia que la luz se viera, debia haber una forma de que fueran visibles los recuerdos.

En octubre de 2016, el director de cine colombiano Sergio Cabrera asiste en Barcelona a una retrospectiva de sus peliculas. Es un momento dificil: su padre, Fausto Cabrera, acaba de morir; su matrimonio esta en crisis, y su pais ha rechazado unos acuerdos de paz que le habrian permitido terminar con mas de cincuenta anos de guerra.

A lo largo de unos dias reveladores, Sergio ira recordando los hechos que marcaron su vida y la de su padre. De la guerra civil espanola al exilio en America de su familia republicana, de la China de la Revolucion Cultural a los movimientos armados de los anos sesenta, el lector asistira a una vida que es mucho mas que una gran aventura: es una imagen de medio siglo de historia que trastorno al mundo entero.

Volver la vista atras cuenta hechos reales, pero solo en manos de un novelista magistral como Vasquez podia convertirse en este retrato devastador de una familia arrastrada por las fuerzas de la historia. Una fascinante investigacion social y a la vez intima, politica y a la vez privada, que el lector no olvidara.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

He thought that memories were invisible like light, and just as smoke made light show, there must be a way for memories to be seen.

In October 2016, the Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera attends a retrospective of his films in Barcelona. It’s a difficult time for him: his father, Fausto Cabrera, has just died; his marriage is in crisis, and his country has rejected peace agreements that would have allowed it to end more than fifty years of war.

Throughout a few revealing days, Sergio will remember the events that marked his lifeand that of his father. From the Spanish Civil War to the exile of his republican familyin America,from the Cultural Revolutionof Chinato the armed movements of the sixties, the reader will witness a life that is much more than a great adventure: it is apictureof half a centuryof history that upset the whole world.

Look Back tells of real-lifeevents, but only in the hands of a masternovelist like Vasquez could it become this devastating portrait of a family dragged down by the forces of history. A fascinating social inquiry; as well as anintimate, political,and at the same time,privatetale, that the reader will not forget.