Fish Soup consists of two novellas and short stories by Colombian author Margarita Garcia Robayo. It will be an excellent choice if you want to feel like you are in Colombia and get to know the country a little better.
Fish Soup consists of three parts. The part that I was most impressed was the first part. It is the story of a girl who dreams of escaping her country and so her life. And it is called Waiting for a Hurricane, what a name! She plans to live somewhere outside her home country and chooses her entire life and therefore, her profession accordingly. It was a fascinating short novel, and the narrative was beautiful.
The second part of the book consists of short stories, and I liked them all one by one. Stories that focus on issues such as family, relationships, social pressure and sense of belonging will surely impress every reader.
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the third part of the book, whereas it was semi-autobiographical! I guess I was not interested in either the subject or the characters as I couldn’t see myself anywhere in this novella. However, the author’s style shined here too. I recommend this book if you want to read an author from Colombia and if you like novellas. Enjoy!
Fish Soup
Uncomfortable family situations, unfortunate health conditions, people on the brink of survival this is what each story in this collection captures, every ripple and every echo that travels from one person to another. With narrative ease and a seductive pull, Margarita García Robayo reminds us that sometimes intimate struggles are as fragile as they are political, and there is nothing but time that keeps us going.
A refreshing and luminous novella, Until a Hurricane can be read as a flamed rite of passage novel but also as a story of a turn against the what one s country makes you dream for. Longing to get out of the coastal village where she lives, an ambitious girl thinks up the best plan for escape: becoming a flight attendant. In her cynical and sad voice and a dark, dirty city, we find the other side of the happy Caribbean. In this context, another American dream is lived and relationships start to fumble and bring claustrophobia. It s a habitat that naturalizes petty violence and where the accepted code is competition and necessity. A story that ponders the destiny of its characters in the middle of catastrophes that can be real, self-provoked or the result of an intelligent strategy.
Margarita Garcia Robayo
Margarita García Robayo is a Colombian novelist and writer. She was born in Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. She has written several novels and short story collections as well as a book of autobiographical essays. Her book Cosas peores won the Casa de las Américas Prize in 2014.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
