Who Would Like This Book:
Patricia Engel’s 'Infinite Country' is a heartfelt, beautifully written novel that captures the complexity and heartbreak of the immigrant experience. Through poetic prose and shifting perspectives, it follows a Colombian family divided by borders and statuses, exploring love, resilience, identity, and the search for belonging. If you’re drawn to literary fiction that grapples with timely, human issues, or enjoy stories about family, migration, and cultural identity, this book will likely resonate deeply. Readers who appreciate concise yet powerful storytelling and character-driven narratives will find a lot to love here.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Some readers might find the shifting timelines and multiple narrators a bit disorienting, especially if they prefer linear plots or single perspectives. The novel’s focus is more on ideas and emotional truths than on traditional character arcs or page-turning action, which may not click with those looking for a tightly plotted or straightforward narrative. Additionally, if you’re hoping for a feel-good story, this book can be quite heavy and sobering in its depiction of hardship and uncertainty.
About:
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is a poignant exploration of immigration, family, and belonging. Set in Colombia and the United States, the novel follows the story of a family divided between two countries, navigating the complexities of emigration, cultural differences, and the harsh realities of US immigration policy. Through multiple perspectives, Engel weaves a tale of separation, struggle, and the quest for a sense of home amidst the challenges faced by undocumented immigrants.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of family separation, immigration struggles, violence, economic hardship, and emotional trauma.
From The Publisher:
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK AND INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"A knockout of a novel…we predict [Infinite Country] will be viewed as one of 2021's best." -O, The Oprah Magazine
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 from Esquire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle, GMA, New York Post, Ms. Magazine, The Millions, Electric Literature, LitHub, AARP, Refinery29, BuzzFeed, Autostraddle, She Reads, Alma, and more.
I often wonder if we are living the wrong life in the wrong country.
Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family in the north.
How this family came to occupy two different countries, two different worlds, comes into focus like twists of a kaleidoscope. We see Talia's parents, Mauro and Elena, fall in love in a market stall as teenagers against a backdrop of civil war and social unrest. We see them leave Bogotá with their firstborn, Karina, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in the United States on a temporary visa, and we see the births of two more children, Nando and Talia, on American soil. We witness the decisions and indecisions that lead to Mauro's deportation and the family's splintering-the costs they've all been living with ever since.
Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel, herself a dual citizen and the daughter of Colombian immigrants, gives voice to all five family members as they navigate the particulars of their respective circumstances. And all the while, the metronome ticks: Will Talia make it to Bogotá in time? And if she does, can she bring herself to trade the solid facts of her father and life in Colombia for the distant vision of her mother and siblings in America?
Rich with Bogotá urban life, steeped in Andean myth, and tense with the daily reality of the undocumented in America, Infinite Country is the story of two countries and one mixed-status family-for whom every triumph is stitched with regret, and every dream pursued bears the weight of a dream deferred.
Ratings (7)
Loved It (4) | |
It Was OK (3) |
Reader Stats (25):
Read It (9) | |
Want To Read (15) | |
Not Interested (1) |
1 comment(s)
A very emotional read about the life and struggles of an immigrant family. Parents trying to do the best for their family and is forced apart when it's found out they overstayed their visas. And the mother having to make a hard decision. It's an very important read showing that simple and in it's core it's human beings and we all do what we need to do to have a better life. But the book do contains rape, which I didn't know going in to it. So it's a difficult read but a good one.
What can you read after
Infinite Country?
About the Author:
Patricia Engel is the author of The Veins of the Ocean, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; It's Not Love, It's Just Paris, winner of the International Latino Book Award; and Vida, a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway and Young Lions Fiction Awards, New York Times Notable Book, and winner of Colombia's national book award, the Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her stories appear in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere. Born to Colombian parents, and herself a dual citizen, Patricia is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Miami.
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