nfinite Country by Patricia Engel

Thank you to @simonschusterca and @avidreaderpress for my gifted copy of this book.

Infinite Country is stunning. It broke my heart and built it back up again. The writing was gorgeous and the story such an important one. After a certain thriller released in 2020 that was marketed as a perspective into immigration, I knew I wanted to read a novel on this topic written from an own voice perspective. Engel’s parents immigrated to the US from Columbia and the way she writes about family in Infinite Country was truly breathtaking.

I ultimately read this book because my friend @bookrecsbymel sang it’s praises so highly, and that was all I needed to hear. I will post her review to my stories.

This book will stay with me for a long time. I very much look forward to reading more from Engel.

INFINITE COUNTRY is set in Columbia and the United States. The story begins with Talia plotting her escape from a girls correctional facility. She was sent there after she committed a violent yet impulsive act. Desperate not to lose her opportunity to return to the United States Talia manages to flee the juvenile institution but must find her way back to Bogotá and her father all the time alluding the authorities that are looking for her.
Through their backstory we lean how Talia’s parents Mauro and Elena made their way to the United States and the struggle to survive. The family becomes separated with Mauro and Talia living in Columbia and Elena and her two other children living in the United States.
INFINITE COUNTRY is a beautifully told story of family, adversity and the determination to survive. The book has one of the best opening lines I have read in a long time.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced edition of INFINITE COUNTRY.

A very short, but very impactful book. Also very relevant, now and probably for many years to come. This is the story of a Columbian family divided by the US immigration laws. Mauro and Elena, hopeful for a safer and better life in the US, make the difficult decision immigrate to the US and become undocumented workers. What unfolds is a series of events that divides the couple and their children to come. It's a universal story, one that is heartbreakingly relatable to so many humans. I did have troubles following the story at times as the narration is jumpy and sometimes I didn't know who was story telling. I think this book could have been a much harder (ie. sadder) read had it not had this "fairytale-ness" to it in it's telling. Or maybe this makes it a more appealing read for readers to digest. Either way, worth reading, especially since it's not a large time investment.

INFINITE COUNTRY is a must-read story of a mixed-status family. I truly admired how Patricia Engel was able to tell the family’s collective history, from the perspectives of each member, also while weaving Columbian folklore into the story to enrich the reader’s experience. This story gets you right in the feels. It also sheds light on the reality that many families face, even today, when it comes to immigration challenges. Either way, this review won’t do the story justice, and if you haven’t already been convinced to pick it up, I hope this is another helpful reminder.

I jumped at the chance to read this because of the gorgeous cover. I knew nothing about it, but the content turned out to be just as amazing as the cover.

This story is an important one. Though it’s a work of fiction, the history and truth it draws from are pertinent. Often, all we hear is propaganda about places like Columbia. We are desensitized to the suffering of others, the people are dehumanized, and we can’t see past the horrors the media/gov’t feeds us. We forget they are actual people, actual communities. Patricia Engel reminds us of that.

As an Indigenous person from the north, I know little about Indigeneity in South America- Columbia in this case. It was astonishing to read about. My best friend is Columbian and I didn’t really know what that meant or the intergenerational trauma she deals with. Infinite Country taught me a whole lot. I implore others to learn more about Indigenous folx from the south.

This novel is a tough read. The truths are hard. But there is also good. There is love and there is hope. The incorporation of myths, legends, and language from Colombia makes it all that much more special.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is a novel full of landscape and love.

The story centres on Talia, the youngest daughter in a family pulled apart by distance and immigration. She has escaped a “school” run by nuns in her native Colombia, hoping to make the journey back to her father who has been deported from America, leaving behind his wife and other children. His wife takes odd jobs, suffers through a rape, constant moves and yet still is able to send money back to support her mother & husband. The narrative runs between current and past and is full of lovely imagery, the constant reminder that love is a strong glue, and hope can be a magnet if believed in strongly by all parties.

I am very appreciative of how Engel mixes in the many many tragedies in the US (school shootings, racial unrest, etc) and challenges the reader to wonder why the US is a place anyone would want to escape to, even asking if it is any better than Colombia. While trivial, what I didn’t like was the sprinkling of Spanish phrases throughout the novel. Yes, it presented as adding authenticity but as someone not fluent in the language, it made me pause and took away from the lavishness of the novel…which admittedly might be the point.

This book is short and quite simply gorgeous in a story full of hurt and longing. Well worth your investment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a copy for review.

Infinite country is a must read. It was beautifully written and I absolutely loved the way Engel weaved together the stories of each family member. While it was a harrowing story of family, loss and immigration it is such an important topic to read about and the story and the characters will stick with me for a long time.

Wow! This story gripped me from the beginning and left me with a heartache, but also hopeful. It is an important book everyone should read. It is beautifully written and page turning story that shows the story that many families experience today. Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy.

Infinite Country is an emotional family saga. The family is divided due to deportation of the father. Some parts are hard to read, but it’s a must read.

Thank you to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the advance review copy.

The term undocumented has never been so real as when Engel describes the fear of minor traffic infractions because you can't apply for a driver's license, the fear of applying for DACA in case they use the information to find your family, the fear of illness in case you have to provide ID at a hospital..Beautifully written and heartbreaking, this is a necessary look at the fear and humiliation that is daily life for the undocumented.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

What an incredible, heart wrenching family saga. This is the story of a family who is seeking a better life for themselves and their children. The narrative explores the dramatic and heartbreaking lengths that a family will go to in order to be together. But even more, the cruel and inhumane systems in place keeping them apart.

Infinite Country is told from multiple perspectives – each family member gets to interject their own truths and experiences to this collective family history – and I loved the way that each of these narratives fit together in the larger story arc. Learning about the experiences of the family was illuminating and frustrating; this story shines a frightening light on the man-made borders and barriers in place keeping families apart.

Interspersed between chapters are brief snippets of Andean mythology (which I absolutely loved getting to read about). Connecting their meaning with the lives of Mauro, Elena, Talia, Karina, and Nando helped me better understand this deeply complex and challenging novel.

The writing is lyrical and hard hitting, honest and raw. I would recommend this novel based on the writing style alone, but the story is also extremely compelling and beautiful.

I would highly recommend this own voices novel for anyone wanting to read about the depths of family love. Please read this instead of, oh, I don’t know, Amer*can D*rt.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and Simon Schuster for this eArc. I am immensely grateful to have gotten to read this in advance of the pub date. Please seek out other own voices reviews as I am not an own voices reviewer for this particular story.

Infinite Country is a heartbreaking and beautifully written saga about 15 years in the lives of a family who emigrates from Colombia to the United States to escape violence, only to be torn apart by immigration rules, poverty and racism.

Patricia Engel's writing is lovely and calm and gently unfolds the story with a lightness and separation that balances out how sad and deeply affecting it is. The story is told from the perspectives of family members who stay in the US and struggle to make a living and a home for themselves as well as the daughter who is sent back to Colombia to live with her grandmother, and all the struggles and enduring love that is shared between them. I read it with a slight sense of detachment as a Canadian looking at US treatment of immigrants, but I know that my own country is not really any better at this, and my hope is that by reading this lovely but painful story, we can all better understand the hardships immigrants go through and do more to help them and less to make their journey more difficult, both as individuals and international policies.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press and Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Read if you like: a family saga.
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This is a heartbreaking account of one family trying to find a safer and better life for themselves and their children. This leads them to become undocumented in America. They then become fractured and have to fight to put their family back together.
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The writing was absolutely beautiful. I loved the way the author described the characters, the plot, and I loved the multiple perspectives. I particularly enjoyed reading from Talia's perspective. I also appreciated aspects of Andean mythology interspersed throughout the book.
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I highly recommend you pick this one up.

If this author doesn't get a Pulitzer or a Nobel prize for this novel, then there is no justice in this world.
Young Talia's predicament filled me with constant dread. The narrator's tone is dispassionate - almost a monotone. (We find out later that the narrator is related to Talia - no more spoilers here!) Most of the dialogue is contained in the body of the narration. What Talia or some other character says in conversation is reported in a paragraph and is not set apart. Normally, all this "telling and not showing" would distance us from Talia and the other characters. Instead, we watch the story unfold with rapt fascination as we are given tidbits of information, interspersed with observations and a few flashbacks. At one point, the focus of the novel switches from Talia to each of her family members, then back to the narrator.

Many of the main characters live with the perpetual fear of being discovered, imprisoned and/or deported. Talia and her father will have to risk their lives, and potentially their freedom, to rejoin Talia's mother and her siblings back in America.

Talia is torn: she loves her father, and is content to be living with him in Colombia, but she also wants to be with her mother and siblings. However, Talia seals her own fate when, one fateful afternoon, she is outraged as she witnesses a man torturing a cat and impulsively retaliates by doing to him what he did to the poor cat. (They should have given her a medal, not put her in reform school, but there, I have days when I like animals more than humans!)

Talia has no choice but to leave her father and Colombia and rejoin her mother and siblings if she wants any semblance of a normal life. There is a word in Portuguese - saudade - which exactly describes the longing, the sadness and regret that Talia and her family feel: for their parent country, Colombia, and for the lost years with each other as a family. "Pining" is an inadequate translation of this word. There is an element of grief mixed in with the pining: "I will never see you again" is often a phrase that follows the pitiful words, "Ai que saudade"...... It is lamentation, regret, aching sorrow, and yes, a huge dose of pining.

And what does the title of this book actually mean? Here is a clue: (and this might be an unwelcome spoiler for some of you: if so, skip this quote:)

"... we watched our parents sway, finding each other's rhythm as if they'd never fallen out of step, as if the past fifteen years were only a dance interrupted waiting for the next song to play. I wondered about the matrix of separation and dislocation, our years bound to the phantom pain of a lost homeland, because now that we are together again that particular hurt and sensation that something is missing has faded. And maybe there is no nation or citizenry; they're just territories mapped in place of a family, in place of love, the infinite country."

I had to really ponder the interesting use of the word "matrix" here. If we take "matrix" to mean "the environment in which something develops," then you have to marvel at how economically Engel managed to convey her thoughts: "family" is the infinite country - "family" is what makes a home. Perhaps I am reading too much into this sentence, but, as a summing up, it does make sense.

The last thing I want to say about this beautifully written, heartrending exposé of man's inhumanity to man is something I came to realize when I worked one summer for Immigration Canada. We humans have waged wars and committed atrocities in defense of our borders and our belief that we humans somehow own this land, this earth. I came to believe that no one should have the right to prohibit another human being from wandering and exploring this earth. In a better version of this world, we should be free to roam like the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. Talia's father expressed it more eloquently:

"The more he stared at those borders on maps, the more absurd it seemed that outsiders succeeded in declaring possession of these lands with national lines, as if Creation could ever be divided and owned."

Everyone should read this book!
My great thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this marvelous book in exchange for an honest review.

My review will not do this book justice, I hope that you will pick up this book for yourself. This is not a light or fluffy read. It is a book filled with sadness, darkness, and heartbreak. It is important, impactful, a necessary read. I was in tears reading this book with the thought of families being torn apart at man made borders, never knowing if they will see each other again. The idea that people grow up thinking their worth is in papers determining their citizenship is heartbreaking.
This book is beautifully written, there are so many magical stories of myths from Columbia, the way the author uses metaphors and symbolism is so special to read. I am in awe of the strength, courage, and compassion of these characters. I know that they will always have a place in my heart.

I absolutely loved the last page of this book, I wanted to quote it but didn’t want to give to much of the book away, but the way the last page was written was certainly lyrical and had so much descriptive power.

Trigger warnings: sexual assault, alcoholism, death, animal abuse

A beautifully written story! A story about a family’s love, combined with Colombian Folklore, and the raw experience of one of many mixed status families who tried to venture north for better opportunities. The book tugged at my heart until the very last page and left me with wider eyes, more empathy all while feeling hopeful for this, and many other families.

This book opened my eyes to the reality of some of the immigration challenges faced by many in the US, even today . I loved that i was captured by the story, and wanted to know more as it went on, I truly appreciated learning more about Colombian folklore (I did a bit of extra reading to support that) and about some very raw and real life experiences that likely many (sadly) can relate to.

I’m so glad I read this and I will definitely recommend to others.

💫 Book Review 💫
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

“I remember wondering what it must feel like to belong to American whiteness and to know you can do whatever you want because nobody you love is deportable”

Sometimes my most difficult reads end up being the ones that stick with me long term. I remember reading a novel about a woman being held captive in a Colombian Jungle (Ingrid Betancourt) years ago and never forgetting her story. So it was no surprise when the author mentioned her name in this story as well, because the connection between the two stories was one which allowed for a voice for the voiceless. Or in this particular case: undocumented immigrants.

I hesitate even using that term as it’s mentioned how hurtful that can be but the reality is that it’s also how people are described when they are in a new country fearful of being deported again. I’m well aware that I can truly never understand the fear that a young mother or father could feel. Or even a child who has a “status” but is still not considered part of the country by citizens who look down on them.

This book is coming out at a time when the new President wants to change the policies set out by past administrations. It’s a time when we’ve heard this “status” used over and over again in the media and yet, some people don’t fully understand. I think it’s a book that will give a voice to those families who struggle to find their place in countries that may house them but will never be a home.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster (and Avid Reader pub for the gifted copy in return for an honest review. The book comes out on March 2, 2021

Like many other reviewers I am amazed at how Engel was able to fit such a complete story in a short, succinct book, especially one with multiple narrators. I didn’t feel like anything was missing due to the length, it felt whole and I was, for the most part, satisfied with how much I knew about each of the characters. The only person I felt we knew the least about was Nando. His chapters were fewer and shorter than the others and sometimes it felt like it was just inserted so everyone's perspective was written. While his chapters still contributed to the story and the reader's understanding of the family's experience, they just felt a little lacking compared to the other characters.

Folklore and stories were weaved into the storyline beautifully, which I have come to learn as Andean myth. They contributed to the lyrical writing style as well as lessons that were meant to be taken from them.

The parts I found the most interesting were Karina’s. It is in her perspective where she questions identity, nations, citizenship, status and basically what do these all mean? And when you read a story like this that is a reality for so many people, you think about how these man-made constructs of borders and citizenship stop people from being on land that was created with no real borders. It also debunks the myth that America (and Canada for that matter) are these wondrous, idyllic places of opportunity. For people who had or have another home, there is still a longing and a questioning of what could have been. That different is not always better and that in some ways, the grass can be greener on the other side.

The last sentences of the book got me feeling all the emotions and reflecting on the beautiful meaning of the book’s title, infinite country.

Patricia Engel takes us deep into the emotional subtleties and stark realities of emigration, immigration and what home means. Infinite Country is an artfully structured novel addressing themes that are integral to society today.

I adored this book and can't wait to recommend it to a wide audience.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for the advance review copy.