Shooting Down Heaven

By Jorge Franco

“Supremely well-crafted” - Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“A lively story of how children are affected by their parents, emphasised by a third narrative strand where Larry and a daughter of Escobar’s strike up a friendship on a plane trip, neither aware of their darker connection." - The Irish Times

Larry returns to Colombia twelve years after the disappearance of his father, an old associate of Pablo Escobar. His remains have finally been unearthed in a mass grave, and Larry is returning to give them a proper burial . . . but not before a reunion with his childhood friend Pedro. Pedro takes him straight from the airport to the Alborada celebration, during which fireworks explode all over Medellín, and the entire city loses its inhibitions.
His homecoming quickly becomes a rude awakening. The years of luxury living in bodyguard-surrounded mansions are now firmly in the past, as Larry watches his family—including his ex-beauty queen mother and troubled brother—fall deeper into depression, drug addiction, and the traps of the family business.
Faced by an uncertain reality, Larry is forced to confront his family’s turbulent history and reclaim himself from the dark remnants of a city trying to rediscover itself. Unflinching and remarkably controlled, Jorge Franco creates a stunning portrait of a generation wounded by their parents’ mistakes.

What the readers are saying:

"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."

"It makes for a fascinating moral quandary and Franco handles the subject matter well."

"Highly recommended for anyone interested in realistic Latin American fiction."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Release date: Apr 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781787702325

Jorge Franco

Jorge Franco was born in Medellín, Colombia. His books include Rosario Tijeras, Maldito Amor, and Mala Noche.

Reviews for Shooting Down Heaven

[ozzer_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

SHOOTING DOWN HEAVEN is a novel marred by an uneven narrative structure that relies too heavily on time and perspective shifts that add little and only seem to create confusion. Three subplots meander almost aimlessly between Larry’s shallow flirtation on a plane travelling from London to Medellin; an all-night alcohol and drug fueled reunion with old friends during the Alborada celebration in Medellin; and his struggles with his dysfunctional family. The backstory to all of this involves the seizure and eventual murder of Larry’s drug lord father 12 years previously following the assassination of his boss, Pablo Escobar. Subsequent to his escape from the Columbian drug violence, Larry is now returning to give his father’s remains a decent burial. He finds a much changed environment: his family no longer lives in the kind of luxury common to highly placed members of the drug cartel; they are now paranoid, depressed, substance and gambling dependent and seem delusional; his friends are in freefall living for their next party; and even his airplane dalliance is a lapsed alcoholic who also is returning to Columbia to bury her own father.To his credit, Franco succeeds with some interesting characterizations, especially Larry’s determined but deluded former beauty queen mother, Fernanda, and his aimless druggy friend, Pedro. However, his dead father, Libardo and his estranged older brother Julio remain obscure. The dark legacies of greed and violence for a country and a family is indeed a worthy theme but its treatment here is anything but clear or uplifting.