This didn't draw me in - despite the drama of the premise, the writing style and the interactions between the friends felt quite ordinary. DNF

This was another book that I went in blind and quite frankly, I was pretty blown away. I was not expecting this type of story or emotion to come from this book. I was so pleasantly surprised at the plot within. The book was heartbreakingly, emotional in the super fast paced way. I loved that it was basically divided into the two timelines, set many years apart from each other. In so many words, Larry’s story is like the cautionary tale of “you can’t go home again,” but in a more emotional way than most stories that try to tackle this subject. The different details invoices were woven together so intricately. The writing in this book is just so beautiful. It’s not a subject that I know a ton about, but I still really enjoyed this book.

5 "vivid, audacious, daring" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author (and translator) and Europa editions. This was originally released in 2018 (in Spanish) and this edition was released May 2020 in English. I am offering my honest review.

I was blown away by this novel. I would describe this a criminal family melodrama of the finest terrifying quality.

Larry, in his mid-twenties, returns (from London) to his hometown in Medellin Colombia. His father was a narco and close associate of Escobar. Larry's father's remains have been found.

The novel very skillfully weaves three threads. 1. The flight home where he meets Charlie (possibly the love of his life 2. his childhood youth where family relations and the demise of the cocaine cartels are described in dramatic and colorful style and 3. his present time in Medellin with his old friends fuelled by alcohol, pills, family secrets and coming to terms with grief, guilt and psychological chaos.

The novel is relentlessly fast paced, chilling, garish and histrionics that are so well written that you feel that you are in a never ending nightmare or on an acid trip that is exciting and frightening in equal measure.

Top notch and will be one of my most favorite reads of 2021 !

An unusual viewpoint on Columbian recent history that really exposes a hollow, empty heart to the main narrator's life.

I have long been fascinated by narco memoirs. The outrageous personalities, the staggering wealth, power and corruption are often beyond what any fiction writer could believably portray.

This novel by Jorge Franco is in direct opposition to all of that. He presents a gritty portrayal of the real personal and societal dysfunction, disconnection, and hopelessness.

The protagonist Larry returns home from exile in England to bury the recently-discovered remains of his father, Libardo, a capo kidnapped and presumably murdered twelve years earlier. Told in present tense, Larry reunites with his country, friends, and family, flashing back to his youth and the events that led to that moment.

The voice throughout reflects the character's state of mind: sleepless, disoriented, and struggling. This was such an effective technique, however, that it distanced me as a reader.

I couldn't help but think that was precisely Jorge Franco's intention, showing how no one on the outside can truly imagine the pain and lasting consequences wrought by the decades-long drug trade in Colombia.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in realistic Latin American fiction.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I love most about this book is how unique it is. It was so scary and so unique to its genera that its hard to put into words how it made you feel. It makes you feel almost exposed in a way.

I love the alternating timelines and how it goes back and forth. I loved it. I simply loved it.

A terrific read a unique novel about drug capos children.The things their exposed to as children from guns to drugs to all the gangsters they meet.A hard to put down book highly recommend,#netgalley#europa

An exciting fast paced story about a drug capos children's lives. Much is said about the drug cartels but never about the littlest victims...their children. They live a fast paced life, are familiar with weapons, drugs are as common as cereal for breakfast. A very insightful look into that lifestyle, a read that is extremely hard to put down and leaves you wondering about the characters long afterwards.

This is sensational .. telling the tales of the children of the big drug capo, Escobar and his right hand man .. the sheltered life the children lead did not prepare them totally for the fallout later when (inevitably) the wrog doers, their family, are either captured or killed.. .. Larry returns when his gangster father's bones are found .. and it's eye opening for him when his sees his mother's and brother's degeneration .. as he did, they should have left Colombia. This brilliant energetic, story brilliantly captures the characters and dilemmas of a privileged life founded on criminally obtained blood money. Are they complicit after the fact?

Much has been written about the drug wars that have ripped apart the lives of many Latin Americans and turned cities into killing fields. This story, written by one of Colombia's up and coming writers and originally in Spanish, is not of the soldiers caught up in the battle of greed or a story of the victims of the cartel's violence.

This story is about the children of the capos, who grew up wealthy and privileged and never questioned what their father did to obtain his wealth and influence. Well, they kind of knew. It'd be hard not to know, hard to keep your eyes glued shut. They knew there were days and nights they were told not to leave the house no matter what as the bombs and shootings stormed across the city.

The Medellin Cartel was among the most feared in its heyday. Pablo Escobar was the devil himself, the king of Colombia's cocaine cartels. Larry's father, Librado, was Escobar's right hand man with so much blood on his hands a thousand Lady MacBeths couldn't scrub it all out.

The story runs through two alternating timelines. First, there's the story about Escobar going into hiding and the plans being made to survive, to mete out vengeance while the family is sent to safety. And then Escobar Is dead and Librador is held for ransom, and the end is coming as countless locals dig and tunnel to find the rumored caches if money.

The second timeline is many years down the road and Larry is returning to Colombia because his father's bones have been found and identified. Fireworks and chaos litter the streets. At home, his mother, Fernanda, the former beauty queen is drowning in booze and self-pity and Larry's old pals are just trying to have fun.

This is an amazingly good book for how it captures the various emotions Larry and the other characters go through and for the Cold emptiness it finds at the heart of it all. Larry has returned home to find nothing there for him anymore. In one sense, he's the adult returning to the land of his childhood, a world he outgrew. In another sense, he's returning to make sense of what turned into utter chaos (although outside the family home chaos had been raging for years with quite deadly results). The writing is superb.

Larry is “the son of Libardo,” and this is one of the gangsters who works with/hangs out with to the infamous Pablo Escobar. When the man dies, Larry returns to the city where drugs and violence are rife to put things to bed. However, this is not a city which forgets or forgives.

We all think we can imagine what might happen in a city where loyalty is paid with your life, but the violence and everyday fear is something you have to read about to believe. The city is one of violence, a great sense of foreboding and the omnipresent fear that today could be your last. If you know Pablo and the drug barons and have worked with them in some way, there is no guarantee that you are safe.

The reality and fear of living in such a world is evoked with raw and visceral reality here.