Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is now currently being hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Blurb from Goodreads

Juan Gabriel Vásquez has been hailed not only as one of South America’s greatest literary stars, but also as one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. In this gorgeously wrought, award-winning novel, Vásquez confronts the history of his home country, Colombia.

In the city of Bogotá, Antonio Yammara reads an article about a hippo that had escaped from a derelict zoo once owned by legendary Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The article transports Antonio back to when the war between Escobar’s Medellín cartel and government forces played out violently in Colombia’s streets and in the skies above.

Back then, Antonio witnessed a friend’s murder, an event that haunts him still. As he investigates, he discovers the many ways in which his own life and his friend’s family have been shaped by his country’s recent violent past. His journey leads him all the way back to the 1960s and a world on the brink of change: a time before narco-trafficking trapped a whole generation in a living nightmare.

Vásquez is “one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature,” according to Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, and The Sound of Things Falling is his most personal, most contemporary novel to date, a masterpiece that takes his writing—and will take his literary star—even higher.

Why I Want To Read It

It’s Monday again! A new day, a new work week! I recognized that Monday was the least favorite day of the week for most of us. Nevertheless, Mondays present new doors, opportunities, and starting points. It provides a chance to start anew. With this, I hope everyone commenced their workweek on a high note. I hope that everyone will have a productive and great week ahead. Gee, we are halfway through the tenth month of the year. How time flies. Before we know it, we will be welcoming a new year. 2024 is just over the horizon. Before we think too far (not really) into the future, how has the year been so far? I hope that it has been kind to everyone. I hope the remainder of the year will be filled with good news and blessings. More importantly, I hope everyone will be healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

Kickstarting another blogging week is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. I am currently in the midst of a literary journey across Latin America. I started this journey in early September and have extended it this October. It is, as always, a very interesting journey; Latin American writers never fail to deliver. To align with the reading month’s main motif (I will pivot to Europe later this month) I will be featuring works of Latin American writers in my Goodreads Monday updates. For this Goodreads Monday Update I am featuring Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s The Sound of Things Falling.

A quick browse through Google yields the name Juan Gabriel Vásquez. Sure, I have not read any of the Colombian writer’s works before but his name is ubiquitous. He always comes out whenever I search for Latin American writers and I have seen his works in the bookstore a couple of times. Unfortunately, it was only recently that I have taken an interest in his oeuvre. There are just way too many writers out there whose oeuvre I want to read! Anyway, off to my perpetually growing reading list Vásquez goes. Interestingly, Vásquez is one of the most important and influential Latin American writers in the contemporary.

Among his works, The Sound of Things Falling is among the more prominent. It explores the Colombian drug trade, a subject that has been explored in other non-Colombian books. However, these books only offered cursory glances into the subject. With The Sound of Things Falling, I am hoping for a more detailed exploration of it and its implications. Published in Spanish in 2011 as  El ruido de las cosas al caer, it is his third novel and was translated into English in 2013. It was a literary sensation in Colombia, winning the Alfaguara Prize in 2011. The book also won the 2014 International Dublin Literary Award, among other literary prizes. These are just among the major reasons why I want to read the book.

How about you fellow reader? How was your Monday? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!