Published : 2021 || Format : print || Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El
It is by chance that José Saramago stumbled upon the history of this elephant's journey. In 1551, King João III of Portugal gave Archduke Maximilian an unusual wedding present - an elephant named Solomon. Solomon and his Indian mahout, Subhro, travel from Lisbon to Vienna with a interesting motley of characters. The details of the travel are not historically known, but Saramago has woven an interesting fictional tale recounting that journey. I have to confess that my expectations from this book were low. I had never read Saramago before, although I did try to read his The Stone Raft , with which I didn't have any success. I was very worried about whether his books were even for me. But finally, the title is what prompted me to request this book from NetGalley . I then received a protected PDF that would expire within 60 days. Since I wasn't too keen to read it, I let the days lapse by, until eventually I found myself on a flight to NY with no reading planned. By then, I