Description

“The most influential Colombian novel before Gabriel Garcia Marquez.”-Times Literary Supplement

A new translation of a Latin American classic, Jose Eustasio Rivera’s The Vortex follows the young poet Arturo Cova and his lover, Alicia, as they elope from Bogota and embark on an adventure through Colombia’s varied and magical landscapes. When Alicia-pregnant, jealous, and more than a little fed up-disappears, it’s up to Arturo, and his unstoppable ego, to follow and win her back. From the cattle ranches of the llanos to the dense jungle of the rainforest, accompanied by hucksters, cowboys, desperate souls, and a terrifying tide of ants, Arturo pursues his bride-to-be, and becomes an inadvertent witness to the appalling conditions suffered by workers forced or tricked into tapping rubber trees.

Inventive, funny, and wildly prescient about the human and environmental costs of extractive systems, The Vortex is both a denunciation of the horrific human-rights abuses that took place during the Amazonian rubber boom, and one of most enduring renderings of the natural environment in Latin American literature. 100 years after its publication, it remains full of verve, and ready to inspire and delight a new generation of readers and writers.

Publisher Review

“The Vortex is the most influential Colombian novel before Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One hundred years on, its themes – neo-slavery, human trafficking, violence against women, indigenous rights, Amazon deforestation – remain timely” -The Times Literary Supplement

“The most transcendental book ever published on the continent.”” -Horacio Quiroga , author of JUNGLE TALES

“Rereading The Vortex today… is an urgent necessity.”” -Sylvia Molloy , author of DISLOCATIONS

“When literary prose acquires the extraordinary power that Rivera’s does, it is difficult to avoid the impression that certain novels not only represent a world but rather bring it into existence.”” -Martin Kohan , author of CONFESSION

“The Vortex, the quintessential ‘jungle novel’, is one of the great Latin American fictions of the twentieth century.”” -Juan Gabriel Vasquez , author of THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING

“This thing that they call The Vortex…”” -Gabriel Garcia Marquez , author of LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

“The novel in particular helped to integrate the jungle – so far and so different from the country’s Andean heartlands – into the national psyche. The author’s concern with the exploitation of land and people would be echoed by Romulo Gallegos, Miguel Angel Asturias, Mario Vargas Llosa and Garcia Marquez.” -The Times Literary Supplement