Synopses & Reviews
"Since they shot her at point-blank range while she was being kissed, she confused the pain of love with that of death." Rosario Tijeras is the violent, violated character at the center of Jorge Franco Ramos’ delicately balanced novel, set in self-destructing 1980s Medellín. Her very name—evoking the rosary and scissors—bespeaks her conflict as a woman who becomes a contract killer to insulate herself from the random violence of the streets (in a country where it is common practice among her colleagues to boil bullets in holy water before using them). Then she is shot, gravely wounded, and the circle of contradiction is closed.
From the corridors of the hospital where Rosario is fighting for her life, Antonio, the narrator, waits to learn if she will recover. We join him in his nighttime vigil. Piece by piece, as he moves through layers of recollection and speculation, we reconstruct the friendship between the two, the story of her many lovers, and her life as a hitwoman.
Rosario Tijeras is a work in the Latin American social realist tradition, possessed of fast and vibrant prose, and poetic flourish. It has sold over eighty thousand copies in Columbia alone.
Heralded in The New York Times as part of "Colombia’s new wave of novelists," Jorge Franco Ramos has in a few years pieced together a billiant career. Born in Medellín, he is the recipient of the Pedro Gómez Valderrama National Narrative prize for a collection of short stories and the Ciudad de Pereira National Novel Competition Prize. Rosario Tijeras received Colombia’s Dashiell Hammett Prize (2000). It is Ramos’ first novel to be -published in the United States.
Gregory Rabassa (Translator) received the National Book Award for translation in 1967 for Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch.
Synopsis
Rosario Tijeras is the violent, violated character at the center of this delicately balanced novel of contrasts, set in self-destructing 1980s Medelln. A spiritual woman forced into work as a contract killer, Rosario eventually is shot herself, and gravely wounded. We join the narrator, Antonio, waiting in the hospital corridor, mulling her crisis of faith and trespass, as she fights for her life.
Synopsis
Since they shot her at point-blank range while she was being kissed, she confused the pain of love with that of death. Rosario Tijeras is the violent, violated character at the center of Jorge Franco Ramos' delicately balanced novel, set in self-destructing 1980s Medell??n. Her very name-evoking the rosary and scissors-bespeaks her conflict as a woman who becomes a contract killer to insulate herself from the random violence of the streets (in a country where it is common practice among her colleagues to boil bullets in holy water before using them). Then she is shot, gravely wounded, and the circle of contradiction is closed.
From the corridors of the hospital where Rosario is fighting for her life, Antonio, the narrator, waits to learn if she will recover. We join him in his nighttime vigil. Piece by piece, as he moves through layers of recollection and speculation, we reconstruct the friendship between the two, the story of her many lovers, and her life as a hitwoman.
Rosario Tijeras is a work in the Latin American social realist tradition, possessed of fast and vibrant prose, and poetic flourish. It has sold over eighty thousand copies in Columbia alone.
Heralded in The New York Times as part of Colombia's new wave of novelists, Jorge Franco Ramos has in a few years pieced together a billiant career. Born in Medell??n, he is the recipient of the Pedro G??mez Valderrama National Narrative prize for a collection of short stories and the Ciudad de Pereira National Novel Competition Prize. Rosario Tijeras received Colombia's Dashiell Hammett Prize (2000). It isRamos' first novel to be -published in the United States.
Gregory Rabassa (Translator) received the National Book Award for translation in 1967 for Julio Cort??zar's Hopscotch.
Synopsis
Award-winning new fiction from one of Latin America's hottest young stars.
About the Author
"Since they shot her at point-blank range while she was being kissed, she confused the pain of love with that of death."
Rosario Tijeras is the violent, violated character at the center of Jorge Franco's study of contrasts, set in self-destructing 1980s Medellín. Her very name-evoking the rosary, and scissors-bespeaks her conflict as a woman who becomes a contract killer to insulate herself from the random violence of the streets. Then she is shot, gravely wounded, and the circle of contradiction is closed.
From the corridors of the hospital where Rosario is fighting for her life, Antonio, the narrator, waits to learn if she will recover. Through him, we reconstruct the friendship between the two, her love story with Emilio, and her life as a hitwoman.
Rosario Tijeras has been recognized as an admirable continuation of a literary subject that was first treated by Gabriel García Márquez and then by Fernando Vallejo. A work in the Latin American social realist tradition, Rosario Tijeras is told in fast and vibrant prose and with poetic flourish.