The Shape of the Ruins

One of the most original new writers of Latin American Literature. -- Mario Vargas Llosa
For anyone who has read the entire works of Gabriel García Márquez and is in search of a new Colombian novelist, then Juan Gabriel Vásquez . . . is a thrilling new discovery. -- Colm Tóibín * Guardian. *
Juan Gabriel Vásquez . . . has succeeded García Márquez as the literary grandmaster of Colombia -- Ariel Dorfman * New York Review of Books *
A masterful writer . . . Juan Gabriel Vásquez has many gifts--intelligence, wit, energy, a deep vein of feeling--but he uses them so naturally that soon enough one forgets one's amazement at his talents, and then the strange, beautiful sorcery of his tale takes hold -- Nicole Krauss
Like Don DeLillo's JFK-themed Libra, the novel is an intoxicating blend of fact and fiction -- Malcolm Forbes * Glasgow Herald *
Juan Gabriel Vásquez's The Shape of the Ruins is a highly sophisticated, fast-moving political thriller set in Colombia and an excellent read -- Alan Furst
Juan Gabriel Vásquez's latest and most ambitious novel.... A dazzlingly choreographed network of echoes and mirrorings * Times Literary Supplement *
With utmost skill, Vásquez has us accompany him in his detective work, proposing a reflection on ghosts from the past and the inheritance of blame, doubt and fear * El Pais *
Absolutely hypnotic, a display of tense, agile, intelligent narrative, it takes conspiracy to a whole other level * El Cultural *
Assembled with satisfying complexity . . . it's his most ambitious and accomplished work yet. -- Daniel Hahn * Prospect *
This clever, labyrinthine, thoroughly enjoyable historical novel by the Colombian author of The Informers and The Sound of Things Falling entangles the two deaths and investigates the internecine politics that lay behind them. -- M John Harrison * Guardian *
Beautifully voiced by his serial translator Anne McLean, Vásquez writes with the elliptical feints and ruses of a story-teller who admires Joseph Conrad in his most delphic moods. The result is sly, subtle, captivating. -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator. *
The most famous novelist to come out of Colombia since Gabriel García Márquez. His subtle, nuanced fiction uses the tools of documentary reportage - historical sleuthing and interviews with witnesses - to steer readers through the nation's labyrinthine past * 1843 Mag (Economist) *
[A] gripping novel by one of Colombia's finest authors -- Angel Gurria-Quintana * Financial Times *