A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK AND INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“A knockout of a novel…we predict [Infinite Country] will be viewed as one of 2021’s best.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 from Esquire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle, GMA, New York Post, Ms. Magazine, The Millions, Electric Literature, LitHub, AARP, Refinery29, BuzzFeed, Autostraddle, She Reads, Alma, and more.
I often wonder if we are living the wrong life in the wrong country.
Talia
is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the
forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of
violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to
get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket
to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she
might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family in
the north.
How this family came to occupy two different
countries, two different worlds, comes into focus like twists of a
kaleidoscope. We see Talia’s parents, Mauro and Elena, fall in love in a
market stall as teenagers against a backdrop of civil war and social
unrest. We see them leave Bogotá with their firstborn, Karina, in
pursuit of safety and opportunity in the United States on a temporary
visa, and we see the births of two more children, Nando and Talia, on
American soil. We witness the decisions and indecisions that lead to
Mauro’s deportation and the family’s splintering—the costs they’ve all
been living with ever since.
Award-winning, internationally
acclaimed author Patricia Engel, herself a dual citizen and the daughter
of Colombian immigrants, gives voice to all five family members as they
navigate the particulars of their respective circumstances. And all the
while, the metronome ticks: Will Talia make it to Bogotá in time? And
if she does, can she bring herself to trade the solid facts of her
father and life in Colombia for the distant vision of her mother and
siblings in America?
Rich with Bogotá urban life, steeped in Andean myth, and tense with the daily reality of the undocumented in America, Infinite Country is
the story of two countries and one mixed-status family—for whom every
triumph is stitched with regret, and every dream pursued bears the
weight of a dream deferred.
