4.0
The Armies
ByPublisher Description
An elderly retired teacher is caught up in drug wars which slowly destroy his small town.
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.Download the free Fable app

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4.0

Tara
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Natalia Ulloa
Created almost 2 years agoShare
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MeryDuo
Created about 2 years agoShare
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paulina restrepo
Created about 2 years agoShare
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“"-Oiga, viejo, ¿quiere que hagamos un tiro al blanco con usted?
-Aquí -les digo, y me señalo el corazón."”

Ana Vargas
Created about 2 years agoShare
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About Evelio Rosero
Evelio Rosero was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1958. He was awarded Colombia’s National Literature Prize by the Ministry of Culture in 2006 for his body of work, which includes several novels, short story collections, and books for young readers and children. The Armies, Rosero’s first novel to be translated into English, won the Tusquets International Prize and the 2009 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
Other books by Evelio Rosero
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