Delirium

December 4, 2006
Aguilar, a former literature professor who now "delivers dog food in order to survive" returns from a trip to find his beloved wife, Agustina, has "transformed into someone terrified and terrifying"; his subsequent investigation into what happened forms the plot of this complex and captivating novel, Restrepo's sixth novel to be translated into English (after Isle of Passion
). In reconstructing Agustina's privileged but troubled past, the novel intertwines several narratives, including the braggadocio of Agustina's former lover—and Pablo Escobar money launderer—Midas McAlister; the tragic tale of her German grandfather, Nicholas Portulinus; and Agustina's own pained reminiscences of a childhood centered around an aloof and domineering father whose affection she tried to win and from whose abuse she tried to protect her younger brother. It seems that Agustina's madness sprouts from a denial of violence and obvious truths—a denial that is shown here to similarly corrupt Colombian society. It has all the tension of a great detective story, and Wimmer's translation captures every tormented bit of Aguilar's desperation.

January 1, 2007
In Restrepo's latest (after her prize-winning "Leopard in the Sun" and "The Angel of Galilea"), Aguilar, a former literature professor who now sells dog food, returns from a weekend trip to find that his beautiful wife, Agustina, has lost her mind. Agustina is mentally ill, but some unknown momentous event has triggered this latest and most serious lapse into delirium. Four narratorsAguilar; Agustina; Midas, Agustina's former lover and a money launderer with ties to the drug trade; and Nicolas, Agustina's grandfatherrelate stories that seem to have little connection but that gradually come together to reveal more of the mystery surrounding Agustina's mental break and the family's secrets and lies. The story, which takes place in Bógota, Colombia, in the 1980s, is tinged with hints of the charged political atmosphere of the time and explores issues surrounding class and money, including Aguilar's rejection of both. Restrepo was awarded two prizes in Italy for this novel and recently received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Recommended for public and academic libraries.Sarah Conrad Weisman, Corning Community Coll., NY

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2007
With each book Restrepo, a former Colombian journalist active in radical politics, garners more awards. In her most astutely structured and psychologically gripping novel to date, she looks back to the catastrophic reign of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar and funnels all the violence, greed, fear, and cynicism at loose in the land into the damaged psyche of a beautiful woman. Agustina's Bogota family is rich and troubled, and she is burdened by psychic powers. When her husband, a literature professor fallen on hard times, returns from a short trip, he finds Agustina in a hotel and out of her mind. As he struggles to piece together the events that precipitated her worst breakdown yet, Restrepo slowly unveils the baroque secrets of Agustina's German immigrant grandfather, her aunt Sofi's true role in the household, the plight of her gay brother, and shocking encounters with a gangster known as Midas. Restrepo's shrewd, darkly erotic, and biting psychopolitical drama nets Colombia's magic and sorrows, and maps the damage wrought as delirium seizes individuals, a family, and a nation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)