Una novela llena de suspense y la perfecta radiografia de una generacion atrapada en el miedo.

Novela ganadora del English Pen Award 2012, del Premio Gregor von Rezzori-Citta 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 quiza varios. Su atraccion por la misteriosa vida de Laverde, nacida al hilo de sus encuentros en un billar, se transforma en verdadera obsesion el dia en que este es asesinado.

Convencido de que resolver el enigma le senalara un camino en su encrucijada vital, Yammara emprende una investigacion que se remonta a los primeros anos setenta, cuando una generacion de jovenes idealistas fue testigo del nacimiento de un negocio que acabaria por llevar a Colombia - y al mundo - al borde del abismo. Anos despues, la exotica fuga de un hipopotamo, ultimo vestigio del imposible zoologico con el que Pablo Escobar exhibia su poder, es la chispa que lleva a Yammara a contar su historia y la de Ricardo Laverde, tratando de averiguar como el negocio del narcotrafico marco la vida privada de quienes nacieron con el.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

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

Juan Gabriel Vasquez 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, Vasquez confronts the history of his home country, Colombia.In the city of Bogota, 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 Medellin 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.

Vasquez 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.