The Abyss

Fernando is a writer who goes back to a crumbling house in Medellín, Colombia, to see his brother Darío, who is dying of AIDS. The house is falling apart along with the family that once filled it.

The book is autobiographical queer fiction, narrated in Fernando's own furious voice. He recalls the years when he and Darío chased lovers together, and he tries to accept that his beloved brother will not recover.

Grief makes him vicious. He rants against the political forces that he blames for so much suffering, and he aims savagely funny insults at Colombia itself and at his mother, whom he calls "the Crazy Bitch". She gave birth to him and his many siblings. The tone is caustic and abrasive, and the humor is black.

Under the abuse runs tenderness. Fernando loves his sick brother, the family's Santa Anita farm, where azaleas bloomed in his childhood, and even the country that is now torn to shreds. Love here is painful and soaked in sorrow.

The novel keeps returning to memory and to the act of writing, and asks whether recollecting a time can keep it alive after the people in it are gone. Yvette Siegert's English translation brings the Rómulo Gallegos Prize winner to English readers.