Colombian Psycho

Santiago Gamboa

NOVEL, ALFAGUARA, 2022. 592 PAGES

«The word that best defines this violent, bereft republic is orphanhood. And what each of us truly is, deep down, is what we all want to conceal.»

Following the shocking discovery of human bones in the La Calera mountains to the east of Bogotá, Public Investigator Edilson Jutsiñamuy is tasked with finding out who they belong to with the assistance of Agent Laiseca and the rest of his team. Julieta Lezama, his journalist friend, will join the investigation which sees them begin to uncover a long chain of criminal atrocities. Their enquiries introduce them to the writer Santiago Gamboa and his work which turns out to harbour a fundamental clue to understanding the mystery behind the macabre find.
The wise, intuitive Jutsiñamuy and the intrepid but troubled Lezama return in a thrilling story full of unforgettable characters including a polyamorous indigenous professor and an enigmatic Argentine mercenary. Colombian Psycho is an enthralling game of mirrors in which the line between reality and fiction blurs as the author's fictions overlap with real life in a dangerous intrigue that also acts as an exposé of the state of a nation.

 

El Espectador. Review.

El Tiempo. Interview. 

Diario Vasco. Cultura. 

"His work mixes poetry with extraordinarily crude violence and extraordinarily acid irony. [...] What I like most about his novels is the mixture of genres and styles. Although they all share a very dark streak, he constantly uses different registers."

Pierre Lemaitre

 

"An extraordinary novel."

Manuel Vilas, El Debate

 

«The reader who is looking for a haven of peace will not find it in the pages of this intriguing police story that inscribes among the best crime novels. Gamboa masterfully portrays the hypocrisy and indolence with which the truth of our recent history has been tried to hide.»

Leopoldo Villar Borda, El Espectador

 

«Colombian Psycho is a fast-paced story with the structure of a noir novel that uncovers some of the black pits of Colombian society. [Gamboa] is an unstoppable and amusing conversationalist, who strings together political diatribes, literary quotations and personal anecdotes.»

Antonio Jiménez, El País

 

«Colombian Psycho is epic from its very title: an analysis of everything that fuels Colombian society, violence, evil and stark x-rays of sex and substances... And all with the pen always on the edge of the abyss of Santiago Gamboa. Black, all very black.»

Octavio Gómez Milián, Zona de Obras

 

The plot of Colombia Psycho is a fascinating game of mirrors between the real and the fictional, it is a disturbing x-ray and a chilling analysis of the current Colombian reality. Santiago Gamboa has a unique talent to cultivate with the intrigue of his writing, the extravagance and energy of his stories make his writing a convulsion, an encounter of emotions, feelings, reflections and thoughts.

Leonardo Sierra, Al Poniente

PUBLISHED BY: Spanish ALFAGUARA | French MÉTAILIÉ | Greek DIOPTRA | Italian E/O

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