The Armies [Paperback]

Ismail, theA disturbing allegory of life during wartime, in which little appears to happen while at the same time entire lives and worlds collapse. This is an important and powerful book.Evelio Rosero has dipped his pen in blood and written an epic in 215 pages. If anyone has wondered if there is life in the Colombian novel after magical realism, this is the evidence of the extraordinary power of that country's literature.The best literary rendering of the Colombian conflict to reach American readers since M?rquez&Nightmarish, surreal, yet true to life.A brutal but beautiful novel about life in Colombia ... has won the Independent foreign fiction prize [UK].It is an extraordinary, devastating book, spare and gripping, by turns painful and cruel&. Rosero is unflinching.A scathing indictment of the current political situation in Colombia.An elderly retired teacher is caught up in drug wars which slowly destroy his small town.