The Sound of Things Falling: A Novel

The Sound of Things Falling: A Review

Juan Gabriel Vásquez, born in Bogota in 1973, is a highly acclaimed Colombian writer and translator. Vásquez was educated in Barcelona and in Paris at the Sorbonne. He currently lives in Barcelona with his wife and daughters. The Sound of Things Falling is Vásquez' third novel to be translated into English and has already won major awards in Europe. The title of the novel is exquisitely apropos for the events and the setting, adequately encapsulating the significance of the text. The title foreshadows all the action of the novel. The Sound of Things Falling is the fictional story of Antonío Yammara and Ricardo Laverde knitted within a framework full of the ignoble history of the Colombian drug violence in the last half of the twentieth century. Vásquez' setting is real, drawn from history and contains details of actual historical figures such as drug czar Pablo Escobar. Vásquez captures the manners and social conditions of the people and the times in the story, with detail and fidelity. Antonío is a young professor of law whose life is good, he has a nice apartment, a beautiful girlfriend and a baby on the way. He becomes acquainted with Ricardo Laverde whom he meets in a Bogota pool hall. Rumor has it that Laverde has spent the last twenty years in prison. Laverde is quiet and unassuming and offers no insight into his past. Antonío's contented life is shattered when one afternoon as he and Laverde are walking on a city street they become victims of a drive-by shooting. Laverde is killed and Antonío is gravely wounded physically, mentally and emotionally. Antonío slowly heals physically but his psyche is crushed by excruciating post-traumatic stress. Completely consumed with his stress and fear, Antonío becomes engrossed in his search for the history of Valverde and why he was killed. Antonío discovers the chimeras and deceptions of the people of Valverde's generation when the thriving marijuana market gave way to that of cocaine and the "war on drugs" was declar...