La frontera encantada

A grandmother who climbed fast in Barranquilla society after arriving from Italy stands her grandson at the mirror and divides his face: one half refined, the other common. She does everything to make the refined half shine, but the household slides into bankruptcy, the father suffers a mental breakdown, and the humble origins she hides keep surfacing in unexpected and comic ways. The book traces the life that grows out of this social spell, through love, sex, friendship and music, as the narrator seeks liberty, refuge and joy in his own body. Close to the author's own life, it mixes recollection, reflection and fantasy, turning the story of a wound into a story of desire, and treats the book itself as a counter-spell.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

320 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Autofiction (assigned by AI)

Set in

Colombia

First published

2025 by Random House

Author's age

43 when first published

ISBN

9786287638938 (original)