The book
Gritty Central and South American lives from an underground Colombian literary voice.
Santiago Gamboa is one of Colombia's most exciting young writers. In the manner of Roberto Bolaño, Gamboa infuses his kaleidoscopic, cosmopolitan stories with a dose of inky dark noir that makes his novels intensely readable, his characters unforgettable, and his style influential.
Manuela Beltrán, a woman haunted by a troubled childhood she tries to escape through books and poetry; Tertuliano, an Argentine preacher who claims to be the Pope's son, ready to resort to extreme methods to create a harmonious society; Ferdinand Palacios, a Colombian priest with a dark paramilitary past now confronted with his guilt; Rimbaud, the precocious, brilliant poet whose life was incessant exploration; and, Juana and the consul, central characters in Gamboa's Night Prayers, who are united in a relationship based equally on hurt and need. These characters animate Gamboa's richly imagined portrait of a hostile, turbulent world where liberation is found in perpetual movement and determined exploration.
The author
Santiago Gamboa
Novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Santiago Gamboa was born in Colombia in 1965. His American debut, published by Europa in 2012, was the novel Necropolis, winner of the Otra Orilla Literary Prize. He is also the author of Night Prayers (Europa, 2016) and Return to the Dark Valley (Europa 2018).
Press
- Nov 28 2017
Visionary Violence: Return to the Dark Valley by Santiago Gamboa
— Miami Rail - Oct 2 2017
Tome On The Range
— The Quietus - Sep 28 2017
Santiago Gamboa’s Present Age: “Return to the Dark Valley” and the Modern Day
— Los Angeles Review of Books - Sep 1 2017
28 New Fiction Books To Add To Your Must-Read List This Fall
— Huffington Post - Sep 1 2017
“An unsettling and brilliant document of contemporary life; highly recommended.”
— Library Journal (Starred Review) - Jul 5 2017
“a haunting, intoxicating novel”
— Andy Greenwald, screenwriter and host of The Watch