Talia’s story is told in the present as she tries to make her way back to Bogotá and eventually the U.S., while Mauro and Elena stories are in the past and documents their journey to the U.S. The story features all five members of this Colombian family but we mainly follow the perspectives of Talia and her parents, Mauro and Elena. 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. 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? 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.Īward-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. 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 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. How this family came to occupy two different countries, two different worlds, comes into focus like twists of a kaleidoscope.
If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family in the north.
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.
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. So keep in mind this is more of a slow burn, literary fiction type read.
The halfway point for me when I got fully engaged. Still, it took me a bit to get into Infinite Country despite the fact that it’s a shorter novel-at 208 pages.
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