In 1994 ,my family traveled to Bogota ,Columbia where our computer was lifted right as we were getting into a car. Our driver was so frightened as he said that thieves always work with others, he immediately donned a garbage bag over his head being terrified that he would be identified . Such is the undercurrent of terror that lines this novel, so authentic and verifiably real. It is not until the end that I realized that this novel was inspired by her personal experience.
Set in Bogota, Columbia the story is told in alternating chapters from the perspective of Chula, a 7 year old girl and Petrona, a 14 year old teenager who comes to clean house for them. Superstitions permeate the novel, governing the extended family's attitude toward life. In addition, the violence of the time colors every word and sentence affecting how the children play, what outside activities they indulge in and what roads they can travel. Sweet Chula has the beguiling nature of a naive child with a prodigious imagination. Petrona, is a poor child from the guerrilla infested invasiones, the favelas of the community. Struggling to support her large family, she falls prey to an easy way to make money. Her downfall becomes intertwined with the family's lives, until a devastating conclusion takes hold. My heart burst with love for all of these wonderfully drawn main characters and the stories of their immigrant experience comes at the most perfect and timely manner. If you have a heart, you need to read this novel..It may get broken along the way but ultimately finds a peaceful place.

Though this story takes place in the 1990's in the times of drug lord Pablo Escobar in Bogotá, Columbia, it's lessons are current for us here in the USA. It centers on two young girls and how they affect each other and each others' families.

I actually finished the book a couple days ago. I needed time to think about how to review this. Besides what I said above I just couldn't decide. If you want to know more about the book go read the reviews on GoodReads. Many just write out the story themselves. Why bother with reading it with all that information? I don't like to include blurbs about the books I read. I figure there are plenty of those out there. My review is to tell future me what I thought and possible current events or life events and how they might have influenced my feelings. If that helps others, I am glad. So for my future self: remember when they separated babies from parents because of a need to get rid of illegal immigrants? How many of them were seeking asylum from life similar to what the characters in this book were living with? I have friends who lived through being held up by guerrillas. I don't believe that these people are taking away our jobs. Watch how the costs of foods go up as citizens take back the farming jobs. Just saying.

Anyway, this book was well written, at times even poetic. It kept me up as I couldn't leave the characters when it was well past time to sleep. I think everyone should read this book. Even if it doesn't change your point of view, it could help educate on the history and peoples of South America. And if it feels factual, like a true story, know that the author did live through a lot of what the book tells about. The girls playing with injured Barbies. The dreams of the girl's leg with sock and shoe that the main character saw on TV news minus a child's body. These are just a couple incidences that felt too real to be fiction.

When I rate a book with five stars I know that I will remember it. It affected me deeply.

I'm so happy that NetGalley had it for me to read for review.

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One of my best friends is Colombian and I've heard for years about his trips to Colombia to visit family so I was excited to get an ARC of Fruit of the Drunken Tree.

It's a quiet novel that goes back and forth between Chula, a young girl living in Colombia during the reign of Pablo Escobar, and Petrona, the teenage maid who's working to help out her family. Even though both protagonists are young, this doesn't read as middle grade or YA, but rather as an adult novel that uses the lens of children to view the world.

This is Ingrid Rojas Conteras' debut novel and I look forward to seeing what else she writes.

There is a strong theme of individuality and individual responsibility in Western literature. We are shown, over and over, that we can be the heroes of our own stories. But in Fruit of the Drunken Tree, by Ingrid Rojas Contreras, it seems like none of the characters have free will. They are constantly at the mercy of others. This isn’t so surprising, given that the story is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Bogatá, Columbia—Pablo Escobar‘s last years of freedom and a time when multiple armed groups violently fought for control. Chula and Petrona, the protagonists of this affecting, tense novel, don’t have a lot of choice. Yet, they still struggle against their circumstances to stay alive and keep their loved ones safe.

Chula Santiago is the narrator for most of Fruit of the Drunken Tree. She tells her story from the safety of Los Angeles, years after the events of the novel. But her perspective so so visceral that I completely forgot that she would survive what happens. She looks back that the years after she turned nine, when a new maid named Petrona arrived and the family’s insulated bubble burst. Chula and her sister are spoiled and wild. They’ve grown up mostly under the careless supervision of their mother, while their father works for an American oil company and only visits every now and then. The girls play annoying pranks on their neighbors, try to find the Spirits of Purgatory to ask for supernatural favors, and generally try to keep themselves entertained while the larger armed conflicts rage around them.

Petrona has fewer opportunities than Chula. She lives in a slum. Her father and older brothers are dead. She is the oldest child still left with her mother and younger sisters. While she tries to follow her father’s ethically upright behavior, it’s not not enough (especially for a teenage girl) to work an honest job. But when she gets pulled into her boyfriend’s criminal activities, she’s suddenly in over her head. Her connections to the Santiago family make her a valuable contact for the boyfriend’s group of whatever they are. It’s hard to tell the difference between a gang, guerillas, and paramilitary fighters. Not that it really matters who they are. They’re more than willing to carry out their threats to get what they want.

Before long, Chula is trapped by panic attacks, depression, and anger while Petrona is caught by more physical dangers. Their circumstances seem to have taken all their choices away, much like the drunken tree that grows in the Santiagos’ front garden is rumored to take away people’s free will if they even breathe the scent from the flowers. The only way out for Chula and Petrona is through—if they can manage to live that long. Fruit of the Drunken Tree is written in compelling language that brought late 1980s/early 1990s Bogatá back to life, complete with devastating bombings, assassinations, glass at the top of walls around houses, and the strong feeling of desperate fear.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 31 July 2018.

Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Chula and Petrona couldn’t have come from more different circumstances. Chula’s father had a job that required him to leave for days to weeks at a time, but afforded Chula, her sister and her mother certain luxuries, like electricity and a maid. Petrona’s family lived in a hut on a hill in an invasíon. Petrona’s father and older brothers had been kidnapped years ago, and she was the sole provider for her sick mother and younger siblings. Petrona would come and work for Chula’s family during a time when the threat of kidnappings and Pablo Escobar were palpable everywhere. As their lives intertwined, the secrets that Petrona and Chula shared would eventually tear both families apart and force Chula’s family to leave Bogotá forever.

Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a really interesting novel. When the novel begins we know that Chula’s family is living in Los Angeles, and we know that Chula is keeping information regarding Petrona secret from the rest of her family but we have no idea what that information means. Immediately the story goes back in time to how Petrona and Chula met, and works forward from there. It’s made clear very early on how different the circumstances are for these two girls and also how dangerous the area is. The threat of car bombs going off in neighborhoods because of Pablo Escobar was real at that time and it led to a lot of tense, frightening times throughout the books. The tone of this novel was one of perpetual unease. The characters don’t know who to trust and that insecurity is leaping through the page.

I enjoyed Contreras use of a changing narrative between Chula and Petrona. The innocent, naïve narrative of Chula was balanced by Petrona’s more knowledgeable and self-aware narrative. Life experiences was the defining factor in how both of these characters approached decision making but it was obvious that neither was clearly aware of the severity of certain situations. I thought the world building in this story was very well done. There was a clear distinction between the circumstances of the two girls, highlighted explicitly by where they lived and the people they knew.

I would definitely recommend this novel. I thought the story was really well done. It took a while for me to become invested in this novel but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. The presence of Pablo Escobar throughout this story definitely had me on edge throughout. This is a time and place I couldn’t imagine being a part but reading this book was like being transported in time.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras' book Fruit of the Drunken Tree explores two girls from different classes coming of age during the 1990s in Colombia, when the country became the murder capital of the world. Contreras captures the anxiety of the times while exploring class differences between Chula and Petrona. What makes this book sing is the authenticity of the friendship between the two girls from very different backgrounds and the way that friendship grows, changes, and is tested over time.

I wanted to LOVE this book. I wanted it to be everything I imagined living in a desperate and impoverished country with high crime would be. It just fell a little flat for me.

It's told through the eyes of Chula and Petrona, her live-in nanny. You read tales of drug lords, kidnappings, crime and even tales of hope. It just didn't feel like I was there. I wasn't swept away by tragedy and I didn't feel hopeful.

Although not a true story, it's based on the author's life. While I would never say it's not a true tale since I have never lived in Bogota, I just wasn't taken on the journey I was expecting.

I will say the writing is very well done and I will read more of the author's work.

Told in alternating perspectives by 7 year old Chula and her family maid Petrona, this book was an eye-opening look at life in Columbia during the Pablo Escobar reign. From car bombs to blackouts it is a life that is unimaginable to most and the fact that this story is based on the authors early life in Columbia makes it even more shocking. If you like reading about how others live, this is a great read.

I don’t know why I struggled with this book at first, it wasn’t until about 100 pages in that I started to feel for the characters. The novel is set in Bogota during Pablo Escobar’s "reign" and centers around the Santiago’s; Mama, Papa, Cassandra, and Chula. The chapters are narrated by the youngest daughter, seven year old Chula, and the maid, Petrona, alternating back and forth. Mostly it’s told from Chula’s perspective, which while I loved this young girl’s sense of imagination I really wanted to know more about Petrona, who forms a close relationships with her. Once I was in the novel I really started to understand how the terror the country was facing saw no boundaries. Everyone was afraid of something, everyone was just trying to survive, and rightly so. One of my favorite lines that really hit me was when Mama heads to the Hills where Petrona lives; “When there’s a tempest, it comes down on all sides equally.”

Loved this book. Didn’t want it to end. Highly recommend.

Love love love. Incredible book. Fabulous book club pick too

Wow! What an incredibly moving and touching story. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras delivers a vivid, profoundly engrossing coming of age story that is told through two young girls who couldn't be more different, yet, they share a connection that is unheard of given the circumstances

Fruit of the Drunken Tree begins with the primary narrator, Chula, studying a photo of a young girl she once knew in Bogota. Chula and her family live a relatively comfortable life behind the walls and gates that protect them from the violence that ravages through Columbia. Chula recounts the time that Petrona, the other narrator, is hired to work in her home as a housekeeper.

Petrona, although a little older than Chula, lives in a village that's been pillaged by the local guerillas. The burden of supporting her family rest on her young shoulders and it's heartbreaking.

Actually... much of this story is heartbreaking. Although Contreras writing is poetic, I couldn't stop feeling anxious for both Petrona and Chula as they navigated through the circumstances of their lives. Chula, so naive, so wholesome, so loving resonates with the reader. Although the narrator is obviously an older her recounting a definitive time in her past, there's still an innocence that contrasts remarkably from the stories backdrop.

Seriously Columbia was scary as fuck.

Listen, I understand I'm not actually doing this read any justice with my layman's review. I can only say that I began reading this title not sure what to expect, nor sure I even wanted to commit to it. Before long, I couldn't tear myself away from Chula and Petrona's story. Both forced to make choices that would forever alter who they are.

And to top it off, Ingrid Rojas Contreras discloses in the Afterword what parts of the novel were based on true events that happened in her life. And I couldn't help but kick myself for being just another dumb American who never once even considered learning more about Columbia. I just let it be the cocaine capital. I never once considered the people who lived in this hell. People who were forced to continue living even with the threat of kidnappings, or random bombings, the constant death, and with nobody trustworthy to run to since the police were as corrupt as the rapists or murderers.

Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a worthwhile read that I enjoyed thoroughly. This coming of age story of two girls who dealt with the pieces of their lives. Some agreeable and others not so agreeable. These instances ultimately teach them that life goes on and what once was no longer can be. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Copy provided by Doubleday Books via Netgalley

I couldn't get into this book. Sorry! I couldn't get into this book. Sorry! I couldn't get into this book. Sorry!

Great story about immigrating to America and the hardships associated with it.

This was a great book! I'm an advocate for diverse literature but I do understand I do not read many books about the Hispanic / Latin American community. This is the second book I read that is written by a Colombian author. I loved the strong female characters in this book enjoyed the writing. I wish there was a bit more explanation about the historical events. Having little knowledge of Colombia and its history, it was a bit difficult to understand the turmoil. I did have to Google to gain better understanding of that time period. Overall, it was a good book. I thirst for more books that take place in Latin America. Thank you!

Set in Bogota, Colombia in the 1990s, Fruit of the Drunken Tree is an incredibly well crafted novel told mostly from the perspective of Chula, an upper middle class girl living a happy life with her older sister, mother, and father. Alternating with Chula is the perspective of Petrona, a poor girl from the Hills where Chula's mother was raised. Determined to help girls who were in that position, Chula's mother always hires poor girls to clean their house, and Petrona is the latest. Petrona's entrance into their lives sets forth a haunting turn of events, as for the first time, the turmoil of Colombia in the time of Pablo Escobar hits Chula's family. I was largely unfamiliar with Colombia during this time, and knew only passing details about Escobar, the paramilitary, and the guerrillas, but Contreras does an excellent job giving you just enough information to grasp what is happening without drowning out your emotions with facts.

Part of this is because Contreras does an incredible job of writing from the perspective of a young girl like Chula. Her naivety, fear, confusion, and courage are illustrated so well, as is her love for Petrona, the awe of a young girl fascinated with an older one. Experiencing events from the viewpoint of a child was a key reason why the events and ramifications were so well balanced. I couldn't stop reading this book, and Chula's wry and sometimes painful perspective is a key reason why.

Contreras also expertly contrasts the life of a middle class family with that of Petrona's, who is forced to work to support her family from the day she gets her period. The terrible things her family experiences, and the feeling of desperation they felt throughout were so well communicated.

This is one of the best books I've read recently, and I cannot wait to tell everyone I know to read it.

I just finished binge-watching Narcos so this book/scenario particularly resonated -- Colombia and Pablo Escobar. And, Contreras relates in her notes that this story was inspired by personal experience. Kidnapping, guerrillas, Escobar, and car bombs were all part of her growing up--this is what makes the novel so vivid and realistic.

The Santiago family lives in a gated community in Bogota. The father works for a foreign oil company. Mama stays at home. When the novel begins, Chula, one of the narrators, is 7-years-old; her sister, Cassandra, is 9. The former is entranced and haunted by 13-year-old Petrona, the other narrator, who is hired as a live-in-maid. Petrona is from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum (invasion). Petrona must work to help provide for her family -- but what else must she do?

Two coming of age stories alternate between Chula's and Petrona's voice. The novel is often heartbreaking as the situation in Colombia put people at the mercy of Escobar or the guerrillas. It is a powerful novel where tension escalates alongside the situation in Colombia and in both families' lives. The storyline advances as the characters age but loses none of its poignancy.

Aside from being swept into the story, the book was well written. Some phrases I enjoyed:

Her eyes were bitter-old
Papa arrived without his mustache, and there was nothing to justify his thick, black brows
Devilwind of the helicopters

I recommend this book; you will not regret it.

'Mamá said Papá had to work far away because there were no jobs in Bogotá, but all I knew was sometimes we told Papá about things, and sometimes we didn’t'.

The Santiago’s lives behind a gated community may as well be a different world entirely from where their new, thirteen year old maid Petrona comes from. Despite their differences, or perhaps because of them, Chula is drawn into a friendship with her. Where Chula and her sister Cassandra spend their days full of mischief, harassing the local ‘witch’ and letting their wild imaginations run free, Petrona’s life is spent working for her poverty striken family, consumed with fears about her brothers and sister, all too aware of the drug lords that swallow young men, seducing the poor with food, televisions (even if they don’t work), and promises of power. The threat of danger, of death is nothing for a boy to fear when compared to the present suffering and humiliation of their circumstances. A hungry belly is a beast, a desire for respect and strength is a lure used to tempt the young into a life of crime. Petrona will protect her siblings, she must, even though she must sacrifice her youth, her happiness. Even if her brother spits at her, shames her.

Kidnappings by guerrillas for ransom are a constant threat, everyone knows someone who has been kidnapped even Chula’s own sister nearly fell victim in her infancy to abduction. Chula’s Mamá extends help to that other world, similar to the place she herself hails from, by hiring young girls desperate to feed their families. She knows that not all can be trusted, however, that the ‘help’ is more often than not linked to criminal activity. Petrona surely won’t last, not with her silent ways, her fearful eyes. The sisters begin to watch her, like big game, but it’s Chula who wonders at the thoughts in Petrona’s head. Charmed by the mystery, could her silence be a ‘spell’, the youthful fancies of their minds makes for many antics through the novel, getting them into dangerous situations. The playfulness of their days makes the dreariness and shock of Petrona’s missing childhood freedoms that much more harsh. Watched over by an astute mistress, Petrona mustn’t fail, she needs every bit of her earnings to feed her family, to be the ‘head’ of the house that her brothers have failed at.

Chula’s parents are rarely together, with her father away working hard. Mamá is a beautiful woman, one every man notices, a woman with her own needs and desires. A woman who runs the house differently when ‘Because Mamá grew up in an invasion she prided herself in being openly combative, so people who pretended to be weak disgusted her.’ Both parents are wrapped up in wars and politics that Chula is too young to understand, even if she finds herself interested, longing to be as informed and clever as her father. Petrona’s existence is nothing like theirs, she lives in a home made of garabge.

The day her ‘bleeding’ came, her mother informed her she was to marry or go to work. Raised to be the little mama of the house, her life is surrounded by worn out women, broken people, those worse off driven to begging. Boys are meant to focus on an education, the girls are meant to support them with hard work. Some end up drug addicted or working for druglords, others dead. She knows she must work her fingers to the bone, be brave so the Santiagos keep her on as maid. Petrona’s family is interested in everything she has to confide about the wealth of the Santiagos from what they eat to the size of their home. Despite her promise to keep their hungry bellies fed, she knows it may not be enough to keep her little brother from the comforts that the encapotado (covered ones) can seduce him with. Violence and shame will come to her home, despite the sweat on her brow from her hard work.

The Santiagos aren’t as immune to the threat of violence as they think, and it escalates. Mamá’s burning sage to ward off evil may not be enough to keep her girls safe nor will the tall retaining walls the government built to keep the rich safe from poor people like Petrona. Car bombs, the threat of Pablo Escobar, all of it is creeping closer and closer to the rich, proving it cannot be contained, escaped. Superstitions dominate Chula and Cassandra, belief that protection from witches and all evils of the world are possible but Petrona knows of no spells to afford her protection. Petrona’s desperation leads her to the flowers of the drunken tree; a wonderful tie to the title of the novel.

Petrona’s state of despair after a loss makes her heart ripe for first love in the shape of a man named Gorrión. Is he salvation? Destruction? Her choices and entanglements lead to consequences that touch them all. Just what will a young woman do to crawl out of the slums, to attempt to conquer the pit of misery that has stolen so much from her. Where has hard work and loyalty gotten her? Two families have to find ways to survive as the extreme violence of Colombia escalates each day, but can they? Following Petrona was far more fascinating than Chula’s life, but that is the point. Chula is seduced herself by the mystery of the young maids existence. Petrona’s youth and innocence betrays her, but with limited choices how could she have done anything differently, how could have the wisdom to know what the cost will be? How could she know if she’ll be saved or find backs turned on her?

Power struggles carry the novel, not just in politics and crime but within ones own family, within the class system. What is left when you start with nothing, everyone you love is taken from you? A beaten people, forced to bend to those who have everything. A place where hero and criminals are hard to tell apart for people who are suffering and everyone slowly disappearing. What is left when you had everything and are forced to abandon your home and country? Forced to start all over again, separated from your husband, with no idea if he is dead or alive.

This is a unique novel that is a coming of age for two girls from completely different worlds. It is a story of survival, of upheaval. The novel crawls at times, but it’s interesting how everything that is happening is perceived in different ways not just between Chula and Petrona but between Chula, her sister and their mother. We don’t understand things the same way as the ‘grown ups’, certainly not the scope of danger. Nothing can return to what it once was, not even when the family is ‘together’, and Chula’s reaction to her father is genuine. I wish I could go into that more, even though it’s such a short part of the novel, it effected me as much as the horrors that occur for Petrona, but I don’t want to ruin the novel.

The ending is as it should be, it isn’t seamless. There remains a lost feeling but it works for me.

Publication Date: July 31, 2018

Doubleday Books

This story had so much potential! I nearly invested in the characters and plot, and the writing was beautiful. I think it was just too slow for me, the pace, that is. I was unfortunately bored for much of the story.

Chula belongs to a privileged Colombian family who lives in a gated community. Petrona, their maid, comes from a poor family who struggles to feed themselves. Both are threatened by the violence and turmoil from gorillas, drug lords and corrupt political officials.

I thought this book was a bit off. Chula was so young and had such a childish voice. It was hard to relate to her because of how young she was. Petrona, who was a more interesting and dynamic character, was lost in the dispassionate short passages that were supposed to tell her story. Overall, the book felt detached and surreal. Although I was interested to read about Columbia and the dichotomy of their lives, the book fell short.

Fans of Isabel Allende will no doubt enjoy Fruit of the Drunken Tree. However, those unfamiliar with the turmoil in Latin America will find this difficult to fully comprehend. The alternating perspectives of two young women from different classes works nicely, but once their lives become increasingly intertwined, it's difficult to figure out what their actions mean on the surface and what they actually mean. Full of secrets, money problems, guerrillas, bombings, and family drama, Contreras covers a lot in this one!