The Informers

A brilliant novel of betrayal and revenge in Bogota from a leading member of the outstanding new generation of South American writers. The hardback of 'The Informers' attracted masses of review coverage, and praise from such luminaries as Colm Toibin and John Banville. Juan Gabriel Vasquez is one of the finest young novelists in South America, with his next novel due for publication in 2010

'Juan Gabriel Vasquez is one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature. His first novel, The Informers, a very powerful story about the shadowy years immediately following World War II, is testimony to the richness of his imagination as well as the subtlety and elegance of his prose' Mario Vargas LlosaWhen Gabriel Santoro publishes his first book, a biography of a Jewish family friend who fled Germany for Colombia shortly before World War Two, it never occurs to him that his father will write a devastating review in a national newspaper. Why does he attack him so viciously? Do the pages of his book unwittingly hide some dangerous secret? As Gabriel sets out to discover what lies behind his father's anger, he finds himself undertaking an examination of the guilt and complicity at the heart of Colombian society, as one treacherous act perpetrated in those dark days returns with a vengeance half a century later.