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    Night Prayers
    Night Prayers
    Night Prayers
    Ebook342 pages6 hours

    Night Prayers

    By Santiago Gamboa and Howard Curtis

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Two Colombian siblings struggle to reunite as the clock ticks down in this emotional thriller from an author praised for his “masterful suspense” (Publishers Weekly).
     
    As a boy, Manuel was a dreamer, a lover of literature, and a tagger. His sister, Juana, made a promise to do everything in her power to protect him from the drug- and violence-infested streets of Bogotá. She decided to take him as far from Colombia as possible, and in order to raise the money to do so, she went to work as a high-priced escort and entered into contact with the dangerous world of corrupt politicians—and when things spun out of control she was forced to flee, leaving her beloved brother behind.
     
    Now Manuel, a philosophy student, has been arrested in Bangkok and accused of drug trafficking. Unless he enters a guilty plea he will almost certainly be sentenced to death. But it is not this prospect that weighs most heavily on him—it is the longing for his sister, Juana, whom he hasn’t seen for years. Before he dies he wants nothing more than to be with her again. Finally, one man learns of Manuel’s situation and decides to find Juana—now married to a rich man in Tokyo—and reunite the siblings. But it is a feat that may be beyond his power . . .
     
    With the style that has earned him a reputation as one of “the most important Colombian writers” (Manuel Vázquez Montalbán), Santiago Gamboa presents a compelling and moving story about the mean streets of Bogotá, the sordid bordellos of Thailand, and a love between siblings that knows no end.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateMar 1, 2016
    ISBN9781609453220
    Night Prayers
    Author

    Santiago Gamboa

    Novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Santiago Gamboa was born in Colombia in 1965. His American debut, published by Europa in 2012, was the novel Necropolis, winner of the Otra Orilla Literary Prize. He is also the author of Night Prayers (Europa, 2016) and Return to the Dark Valley (Europa 2018).

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    Reviews for Night Prayers

    4/5

    17 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A couple of things about this book.1. One look at the cover. This alone convinced me to pick it up to see what it was about.2. The translation from Spanish to English was absolutely amazing.3. The quality of the writing puts nearly every book I have read in the last couple of years to shame.4. Philosophy, politics, religion, and human nature. The depth and breath that the author goes into to tell this story is unlike anything I have read before.As one of the main characters says regarding his story "This isn't going to be a crime story, it's going to be a love story"The story is pretty simple. A brother and sister who feel they don't belong in their average middle class family in Bogota, seek a way to escape.The sister Juana, manages to get out. Manuel's escape doesn't go so well, not that his sisters was smooth.The book is told from four viewpoints: Manuel, Juana, a member of the Colombian embassy in India, and a fourth source.The story takes place primarily in Bogota and Bangkok, but also in India, and Iran.This is a powerful story told exquisitely. It is timely, and historical in addition what I have already stated. One warning some of the sex described in the book is rather graphic.Read this book! I don't think you will be disappointed.
    • 4/5
      There appears to be cheating in the publishing house. Much like baccarat at Rick’s, I don’t feel pained to point out the obvious. Europa Editions have now published several translated novels providing a middlebrow pass to literary sophistication. Barbery, Bronsky, and Cosse amongst others offer a view, a taste without the burden of effort. I’d say Murakami and Paul Auster are just as guilty but alas. You can then imagine my reluctance approaching this unknown novel.

      Gamboa certainly lives up to the EE tradition by citing philosophers and theorists and then quickly leaping to detailed carnality—endless ingesting and copulating only for the sake thereof. Oh, and the narrative drifts from Bogota to Delhi and then to Bangkok Tokyo and Teheran.

      So why then my favorable response? There are brilliant passages dwelling on our estrangement, our inability to relate to bullshit and the unexpected solace of a poem by Mayakovsky or Rimbaud. Did I find aspects of Night Prayers cheap and contrived? Of course, but it kept a sufficient pulse to ward off my trenchant doubts.

    Book preview

    Night Prayers - Santiago Gamboa

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