The Shape of the Ruins

Each novel I read by this author is better than the previous. Vásquez is to 21st-century Colombian fiction what Márquez was to the 20th century. Both authors share a (justified) pre-occupation with the country's bloody and violent history. Whereas Márquez uses the medium of magic realism, The Shape of the Ruins (a line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, appropriately), Vásquez has deployed the technique of auto-fiction. The author features as the main character of this novel, blending both historical fact and fictional assumption to seek meaning in the seemingly parallel assassinations of General Uribe Uribe and Jorge Gaitán. The Shape of the Ruins is about history and storytelling; how victors evidently appropriate history so that their version becomes de facto accepted to the exclusion of all other possible accounts. Vásquez is too clever to suggest specifically the evidence of conspiracy theorists; his point is more to suggest that alternative narratives deserve consideration. The Shape of the Ruins is about courage, determination and perseverance; qualities that matter all the more in a country such as Colombia. The novel, however, is much, much more, than a tirade against institutionalised corruption; it reads as a thriller, a quest for truth and a journey of discovery for both the author and reader. 9/10.

By Juan Gabriel Vásquez